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AMONG SCHOOL GARDENS

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CHARITIES PUBLICATION COMMITTEE

105 east 22D STREET, NEW YORK

RUSSELL SAGE
FOUNDATION

AMONG SCHOOL
GARDENS

BY
M. LOUISE GREENE, M.Pd., Ph.D. (Yale)

NEW YORK
CHARITIES PUBLICATION
COMMITTEE .... MCMXI

The Russell Sage Foundation

Printed, April, 1910

Reprinted, April, 191 1

PRESS OF WM. F. FELL CO.
PHILADELPHIA

FOREWORD

"Among School Gardens" is intended, (i) To
answer the questions: What are school gardens?
What purpose do they serve? Where are the
best? (2) To give such explicit directions that
a novice may be able to start a school garden;
and to show that even the simplest one can be
of great benefit to children. (3) To share with
those already interested in school gardens knowl-
edge of work done in different places.

Until a few years ago it was difficult to obtain
the right sort of instruction in school gardening
unless one left home for a long period. Many
are unable to do this. General information and
some experience in cultivating flowers in a city
yard constituted the few foundation stones upon
which I decided to build a good superstructure
of knowledge applicable to all phases of the sub-
ject. The fact that 1 had to collect my own equip-
ment may enable me to help others who cannot
obtain the proper training for school gardening.
Some instruction from Mr. Herbert D. Hemenway,
one of the pioneers of the movement, consid-
erable practice at the greenhouse bench, in the
teacher's class and in charge of children under
Mr. Stanley H. Rood, Director of the excellently
equipped School of Horticulture, Hartford, Conn.,
and work with Mr. Henry G. Parsons, lecturer on

FOREWORD

the subject in the summer school of New York
University, constituted the chief part of my
preparation. Visits to some of the best gardens
in our own country and Canada were also made.
Later, at the suggestion of Miss Mary Marshall
Butler, of Yonkers, N. Y., the Russell Sage
Foundation asked me to spend a summer study-
ing school gardens with a view to this publication.

I have endeavored to make the book a readable,
reliable statement of what seems fundamental
in school gardening. It would be impossible to
mention the names of the many persons, reaching
into the hundreds, who have helped in gathering
data. Almost without exception all who were
asked gave generously of their interest, knowledge,
and illustrative material. Some of the latter was
unavailable. What has been used shows special
phases of the work and as wide a range as possible
of school garden activities. Frequently busy
men and women gave from half a day to several
days of their time. Without such assistance this
book could not have come into existence.

The writer acknowledges with sincere appre-
ciation the courtesies received from the following:
Assistant Secretary Hays; Professors L. C.
Corbett and Dick J. Crosby, of the United States
Department of Agriculture; Miss Susan B. Sipe,
Supervisor of Nature Study in the District of
Columbia and collaborator in the Department of
Agriculture; Miss Louise Klein Miller, Curator of
School Gardens, Cleveland, Ohio; Miss Florence

FOREWORD

E. Lillie, of Minneapolis, Minn.; Miss Emilie
Yunker, Woman's Outdoor Art League of Louis-
ville, Ky. ; Miss Stella Nathan, Supervisor of School
Gardens for the Board of Education, Philadelphia,
Pa.; Mr. John L. Randall, of the Pittsburgh Play-
ground Association; Professor Otis W. Caldwell, of
Chicago University, Chicago, 111., and Professor
Benjamin Marshall Davis, of Miami University.

This list, brief as it is, would be incomplete
were no mention made of indebtedness to
Doctor James W. Robertson and the staff of
Macdonald College, Ste. Anne de Bellevue, Quebec;
to Professor S. D. McCready, and Mr. E. A.
Howes, of Guelph, Ontario.

For the critical reading of the chapter on
"Weeds" I am indebted to Professor Alexander
W. Evans, of Yale University; of chapters con-
cerning soil, planting, etc., to Mr. R. F. Powell,
Superintendent of City Farming, in Buifalo, N. Y.;
and for reading the manuscript as a whole, to Mr.
Edward Mahoney and Mr. Stanley H. Rood.

To Messrs. Doubleday, Page and Company
and The Macmillan Company, to the editors of
Suburban Life, the National Association of Audu-
bon Societies and the National Cash Register Com-
pany of Dayton, Ohio, and to James Vick's Sons,
Rochester, New York, acknowledgment is made
for the use of excerpts, lists, and photographs.

M. Louise Greene.

New Haven, Connecticut,
March, iqio.

vii

TABLE OF CONTENTS

PAGE

Foreword v

List of Illustrations xi

CHAPTER I
The Evolution of the School Garden ... 3

CHAPTER II
Different Kinds of School Gardens . . . -41

CHAPTER HI
Soil Fertility 83

CHAPTER IV
Cost of Equipment 1 1 1

CHAPTER V
Planning and Planting the Garden .... 145

CHAPTER VI
After Planting, What? 177

CHAPTER VII
An Interlude: Some Garden Weeds . . . 203

CHAPTER VIII
The School Garden in Vacation and in Term Time . 221

CHAPTER IX

Some Last Things 263

TABLE OF CONTENTS

APPENDICES

A. Notes

. . . 279

B. Testimony

• • • 321

C. How to Plant a Tree .

• • • 336

D. Ten Principles of Pruning .

... 338

E. A Hymn for Arbor Day

. . . 339

Bibliography

• ■ • 343

Index

• • - 377

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS

PAGE

Fairview Garden School, Yonkers, N. Y.

Frontispiece

"Mine" 5

Domestic Science or Kitchen Garden, Oakland

School, Cleveland, Ohio . . opp. page 7

Macdonald College, Ste. Anne de Bellevue.

School garden on the "group plan" . 14

Section of a "Group " Garden : one or two children

on each vegetable plot 15

Guelph School Gardens, July, 1909 .... 16

Bowesville School Grounds, Canada . 17

Teachers' Class visiting the Merden School Gar-
dens, Canada 19

" Boys should be Formed not Reformed."
tional Cash Register Gardens . opp.

Morgan School, Washington, D. C. .

School of Horticulture, Hartford, Conn. .

Boys' Plots, School of Horticulture .

A Teacher's Garden, School of Horticulture

DeWitt Clinton Park School Garden, New York

City 28

Second Planting, Wainwright Garden, Philadel-
phia opp. page 29

Corner of Ludlow Schoolyard, Washington, D. C. 31

Second Grade children making Cuttings. Nor-
mal School, Washington, D. C 33

Macdonald Consolidated School and Gardens,

Canada . . 35

Na-

)age

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS

PAGE

A Philadelphia School Garden . . opp. page 37

Could You Do Better? 42

Housekeeping Room, DeWitt Clinton Park, New

York City 48

"Little Brother Helps" 50

Vacant Lot in Louisville — The first planting . 54
Vacant Lot in Louisville— After several seasons'

planting 55

The New Technical High School, Cleveland, Ohio

opp. page 59
Crippled children farming in the heart of New

York City 60

Garden at Bellevue Hospital, New York City . 63
Rock Garden, Ludlow School, Dubuque, Iowa 67
Canadian boys spraying Potatoes .... 70
Canby, Minn., Public School Garden and Experi-
mental Farm 72

School Garden, State Normal School, Kearney,

Nebraska 74

What Is! 78

What Might Be 78

Children Who Need School Gardens ... 84
The Raking-drill. Carroll Garden, Philadelphia,

Pa. opp. page 89

A Cleveland Lot — Before cultivation opp. page 97
The Same Cleveland Lot — After cultivation

opp. page 96
Device for Experiments with Soil . . . .98

Hauling Street Sweepings, Louisville, Ky. . . 103
Chart of Eighteen-Cent Garden . .112

Eighteen-Cent Garden . . . opp. page 115
Fourth Grade boys fixing Fence, Normal School,

Louisville, Ky 119

A Model Tool-House .... opp. page 121

Hazelwood Park School Garden, Pittsburgh, Pa. . 127

xii

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS

PAGE

Section of Wooden Pergola 129

Doan School Garden, Cleveland, showing central

arbor and pergola . . . opp. page 131

Good Tools

Cultivating Stick ....

Proper Use of the Spade .
Rosedale Garden, Cleveland, Ohio .
A Garden should have a Bird-box .
Plan of Doan School Garden
Plan of a Model Garden

Kindergarten Class, Carroll Garden, Philadelphia

opp. page 1 5 1

Plan of Axe School Garden, Philadelphia

Lines Stretched for Planting, Red Wing, Minn

Crops Appearing, Red Wing, Minn. .

Garden of Francis W. Parker School, Chicago

Bed Marker, or Marking Board

Eight-year-old boy who made his own Marker

Plan of Planting used by Teachers' Class, Henry

G. Parsons, Instructor
Planting Operations .... opp. page 170
Planting Operations (continued) . opp. page 171
Aquatic Garden with Fountain .... 172

A School Garden Class, Red Wing, Minn. . .178

Toolhouse Decorated for Harvest Festival

opp. page 181

Root Cage or Planting Frame 183

View of End Piece showing Grooves

Children of the Normal School, Louisville, Ky., and

their tulips blooming in March . opp. page 187
Planting Plan, showing succession of crops. Wil-

lard School Garden, Cleveland, Ohio . .189

Outfit for Insect Study 190

Insect Spreading Board 191

xiii

133
'35
140

'45

147
148

57
61

64
66

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS

"Killing Jar"

Thinning his Plants

"The Father of the Man without a Job"
Normal Student's Home Garden, Washington

D. C

Writing up the Day's Diary ....
Home-made Breeding Cage ....
First Year's Growth of Yellow Dock

Jimson Weed

Plantain

Common Purslane or Portulaca Oleracea

Couch Grass

Woodbery Garden, Baltimore — The lot before

cultivation

Woodbery Lot — After the children made their

school garden

Pigweed

192
194

195

196
197
199
204
204
206
207
208

210

21 1
212
212
213
214
215
217
218

Carpet Weed

Leaf, Spike and Root of Broad-Leaved Dock
First Year's Growth of Broad-leaved Dock

Poison Ivy

Flowering Plant of Burdock ....

Mullein

Home Garden of Two Boys of the "Training Gar-
den" opp. page 223

Comparing Crops 223

What Park Life Boys Plan 226

Park Life School Garden, Dubuque, Iowa . 228

The Daily Lecture for Park Life Boys . . . 229
The New Half of Fairview Garden School, Yon-

kers, N. Y opp. page 231

Pittsburgh Children enjoying their School Garden 232
Making the Most of a Small Space .... 234
The Douglas School Garden, Cincinnati . . . 236

xiv

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS

PAGE

Conquering Dififkulties, P. S. 41, Manhattan, New

York City 238

School Garden and Arsenal Park, Pittsburgh, Pa. 239

Plan of Hyannis Garden 242

Sixth Grade Pupils Budding Peaches, Normal,

111 245

Child with Grain 248

Formal Garden made by the Children of School

No. 10, Indianapolis . . . opp. page 251
First Grade Children learning the Names of the

Flowers, Lakeview School, Pueblo, Col. . . 252

DeWitt Clinton Park School Garden, New York . 253
Fourth Grade children cutting Grain, Lakeview

School, Pueblo 258

A Happy Crowd of Harvesters opp. page 263
Philadelphia Mill Girl Gardeners . opp. page 267
A Member of the "City Beautiful Club," Louis-
ville 268

A Welcome Guest at Fairview 271

Our Pumpkins, Lakeview School, Pueblo . . 272
Exhibit of Vegetables raised by School Children,

Louisville, Ky opp. page 275

CHAPTER I

THE EVOLUTION OF THE SCHOOL
GARDEN

CHAPTER I

THE EVOLUTION OF THE SCHOOL
GARDEN

"School gardens are not intended to create gardeners or farmers,
but to afford the growing boy or girl an opportunity for many-sided
development."

A SCHOOL garden may be defined as any
garden where children are taught to care
for flowers, or vegetables, or both, by one
who can, while teaching the life history of the
plants and of their friends and enemies, instil
in the children a love for outdoor work and such
knowledge of natural forces and their laws as shall
develop character and efficiency.

To make it apparent that size is not a crucial
matter, a second definition may be that it "is any
garden in which a boy or girl of school age takes
an active interest. It may be a tiny seedling grow-
ing in a flowerpot indoors or an extensive series of
garden crops in a large garden outdoors. The gar-
dens may be collective or individual or both; they
may be at the school or the home or both. In all
these cases the plants to be grown are much the
same and the methods involved in growing them

AMONG SCHOOL GARDENS

are similar;"* while the underlying purpose of the
teaching is threefold, educational, industrial, and
social — or moral, since it is only in relation to
others that moral conduct or character exists.

As the founder of the children's school farm in
DeWitt Clinton Park, New York, wrote in her
first report:

" I did not start a garden simply to grow a few
vegetables and flowers. The garden was used as
a means to show how willing and anxious children
are to work, and to teach them in their work some
necessary civic virtues; private care of public
property, economy, honesty, application, con-
centration, self government, civic pride, justice,
the dignity of labor, and the love of nature by
opening to their minds the little we know of her
mysteries, more wonderful than any fairy tale."f

The virtues here enumerated can best be taught
in the school garden with the individual plot and
ownership, because there the interest is greater,
the rewards are more desirable, and cause and
effect are more frequently and clearly demon-
strable. The cultivation of such virtues is at the
minimum when the garden of a school is only a
bit of decorative planting in the care of which the
children have no part. School-ground decoration
of this type is better than none, for like pictures on
the schoolroom walls, it sends out a daily influence

* Weed and Emerson: The School Garden Book, p. 3.

t Mrs. Henry Parsons in Report of the First Children's School
Farm in New York City, for 1Q02-1Q04.

THE EVOLUTION OF THE SCHOOL GARDEN

in behalf of orderliness and beauty. So much the
more reason why the decorative planting should
be of the best, that it may teach symmetry
of arrangement, harmony of line and color, and
unity throughout.

Such a garden may inspire some degree of

"Mine"

civic pride in the children and some respect for
public property through the feeling that their
school home is superior to that of others. But
these ideas are likely to be limited in practical re-
sults to children who have an eye for natural
beauty. Introduce but a little bulb planting by
the children, however, a little active participa-

AMONG SCHOOL GARDENS

tion in the care of the plants and grounds, and at
once to each and every child the garden becomes
"our" garden, and an injury to it a personal affair;
any praise or merit becomes a comment about
something " I made or helped to make." With
this sense of participation, comes genuine private
care of public property. Of necessity, there must
follow with this kind of interest, many self-deter-
mined convictions on the part of the child as to
what is morally as well as culturally right and
wrong in the garden. Lessons like these become
gradually ingrained modes or habits of thought,
and the child fibre is toughened morally.

The larger the field the gardening offers, other
things being equal, the greater the opportunity for
development of the child. Hence, the plea for
individual beds and also for co-operative labor on
larger areas, as on paths, and on class or sample
plots. The union of these two kinds of tasks best
illustrates life where each individual works out his
own salvation; if happily and usefully, he must
do it with due consideration for others and for his
own share of responsibility for the public good.

For the understanding of a subject, it is neces-
sary to know both its past and present. Con-
sequently a brief history of school gardening is in
order. Putting aside for a time the consideration
of the few gardens, — not more than four or five, —
which were started prior to 1900, the movement
in America is barely ten years old. Yet, like the
occasional stations of the wireless telegraph, it

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THE EVOLUTION OF THE SCHOOL GARDEN

throws a chain of gardens as it were, from the
Atlantic to the Pacific, from Florida to Maine;
while in our island possessions the people are fol-
lowing our lead, as in Porto Rico, or have ante-
dated our experiment, as in Hawaii.*

In the United States, the initial step in establish-
ing school gardens was taken by the Massachusetts
Horticultural Society which, in 1890, sent Mr.
Henry Lincoln Clapp to make a study of school
gardens in Europe. As a result of his report and
the work of the society in encouraging children
to grow flowers and vegetables at their homes,
interest in school gardening was aroused and
slowly but steadily increased. Mr. Clapp him-
self, Master of the George Putnam school of
Roxbury, Massachusetts, instituted, in 1891, the
first school garden in America, — a wild-flower
garden, for which his pupils brought the earth and
collected the ferns. The garden is still in existence
with some 150 native wild plants. Since 1900 a
vegetable plot with individual beds has been added.

* In Hawaii "The course in the Normal School includes garden
and field work, budding, grafting, potting, transplanting, study of
domestic and wild animals, beneficial and injurious insects, etc.
Plats of ground are assigned to groups of students who supervise the
work of the pupils in the training school in caring for these plats.
These training school pupils work together by grades, raising vege-
tables which are disposed of in the city markets. The proceeds are
used to purchase school equipment. The other grade schools of the
city are also given instruction similar to that in the training school by
a traveling instructor, and a portion of each school's grounds is set
apart for the growing of vegetables." Alger, E. G.: Circulars of
Educational Information No. 13, Dept. of Education, Vermont, IQ04.

AMONG SCHOOL GARDENS

Mr. Clapp reported that about the beginning of
the last century many European proprietors of
large landed estates instituted gardens or small
farms for the instruction of their younger work-
men and for the training of overseers.* Out of
this practice grew a few famous colleges, schools of
agriculture and farm schools, some of which spe-
cialized in one or more branches of garden, field or
dairy work. The courses of study were planned
to cover three or four years' work, and were offered
to children over fourteen years of age who were
the sons or daughters of the farmers or laborers
on the estates. Governments sometimes became
interested in these schools and were even induced
to lend them aid.

From such experimental schools there gradually
arose the belief that something ought to be done
to give children of the rural schools who had
reached the age of six some definite instruction in
the use of their environment so that they might
draw from it both wealth and happiness. The
underlying reason for putting such instruction in
the schools was not an educational one. The
primary object was not to train brain, hands and
muscles at the same time, nor to increase brain
power through skilful use of the hands and prac-
tice in the co-ordination of the little used muscles;
it was rather an economic one, to stop the flow of
unskilled labor to the towns and cities, to build up
the agricultural wealth of the nation.

* See Appendix A, Note i.

THE EVOLUTION OF THE SCHOOL GARDEN

Some of the German states early led the way
in the practical demonstration of the value of
such instruction. Schleswig-Holstein in 1814,
Nassau in 1817, and Prussia in 1819 introduced ,
into the rural schools the culture of fruits and
vegetables. Other German states soon followed.
Though the point of view was economic rather
than educational, the very stress laid upon agri-
cultural results necessitated careful training of the
teachers for such garden work and, later, brought
the introduction of plant study, even in the cities,*
as a special feature of the work of the elementary
and secondary schools.

By royal edicts, in 1869, both Austria and Swe-
den took up the school garden movement. Aus-
tria demanded that both a garden and a place for
agricultural experiments should be established
wherever practicable in connection with rural
schools. Sweden required that every school should
have a garden containing from 70 to 1 50 square
yards of ground properly laid out.

Belgium has in her elementary schools a compul-
sory course in horticulture in which she emphasizes
the raising of fruit and vegetables and truck farm-
ing, the last being the main industry of her people.

* Berlin has a large central garden as well as smaller ones adjacent
to her schools. The central garden contains about ten acres. From
it, on regular distribution days, there are sent to the schools from
50,000 to 100,000 specimens for biological or botanical study. The
daily papers announce beforehand the kinds to be sent. Classes
visit the garden to study the growing plants and trees. See Bennett,
H. C. : School Gardens in Great Cities, pp. 7-9.

AMONG SCHOOL GARDENS

France, since 1880, has recognized the school
garden in the curriculum of her elementary schools.
By order of the French Ministry of Education,
courses in the normal schools are made to include
such instruction as will enable graduate teachers
"to carry to the elementary schools an exact
knowledge of the soil, the means of improving it,
methods of cultivation, management of a farm
and garden."* The French Ministry states that
the main object is "not to teach the business of
farming but to inspire a love for the country and
to develop the natural tendencies of children to
become interested in flowers, birds, etc." This is
the law, but in practice the school gardens as late
as 1902 were universally maintained more for
the benefit of the teachers, many of whom are
enthusiastic horticulturists, than for the welfare
of the child. It is only since 1902 that gardens
have been attached to the rural schools and con-
ducted more and more from the new viewpoint.

Russia, like France, requires every school re-
ceiving public funds to maintain a garden for
flowers and vegetables and also a plot for orchard
and forest trees, and, in addition, an apiary.
Short summer courses are provided for teachers.
Seeds and books are furnished free, and traveling
instructors are sent to see that the gardens are
well laid out, properly started, and the courses

* Addis, Wilford: Courses in Agriculture in the Higher Elementary
Schools of France. U. S. Bureau of Education. Report of Com-
missioners for 1889-1890, Vol. II., pp. 1007-1013.

THE EVOLUTION OF THE SCHOOL GARDEN

of Study well planned. Still, it is the industrial
idea that is everywhere prominent.

In England, school garden work has been carried
on during the last seventeen years, but until
recently chiefly in connection with supplementary
schools or maintained by private philanthropy. In
1895, the Department of Education added cottage
gardening as an optional study for boys. The
gardens were managed by the master of the
school or by a gardener from the neighborhood.
This method has been improved upon by the
present system of supervision. "Each county
now has its agricultural inspector. They inspect
and often instruct in all the schools throughout
their respective counties, lecture evenings and
Saturdays to teachers preparing for examination,
and carry out a most detailed system of marking
day and evening school gardens, and judging flower
shows. They plan the gardens and seem to feel
that the results should be the best obtainable, even
though the workers are children, else the parents
will not be in sympathy with the work."* Many
of the latter have cottage gardens and are critical
judges of the worth of the children's work.

A report in 1908 by Horace J. Wright, inspector

* Sipe, Susan B.: School Gardening and Nature Study in English
Rural Schools and in London. U. S. Dept. of Agric, Office of
Experiment Stations, Bulletin 204.

The examinations referred to are those of the Royal Horticultural
Society covering topics in elementary agriculture. Those who pass
successfully are entitled, in some counties, to additional salaries.

I I

AMONG SCHOOL GARDENS

for Surrey, gives "in round figures 8300 pupils
receiving instruction in gardening at 600 ele-
mentary day schools throughout England."
These, as well as the "evening school gardens" or
"continuation gardens," are steadily increasing.
Some counties make liberal grants for the work
while others are parsimonious. The evening
school gardens were first established in Surrey in
i8q2, and are intended for boys employed during
the day. To such the teacher or gardener of the
day school classes gives individual attention twice
a week in lessons of at least an hour. The school
garden plot is usually one rod square. "There
must be a teacher for at least every fourteen
boys." The pupils must be eleven years of age
or older. Prizes are given to both the boys and
the teacher. Indeed, the teachers' salaries are
determined somewhat by the total number of
marks given to each garden and its relation to the
county's average as determined by the county in-
spector. Salaries for a garden are based upon a
fee of three shillings a pupil for each plot culti-
vated throughout the summer, with the addi-
tion of merit grants according to the rating of the
garden. Sometimes the teacher having the best
garden in the county, "the county premier," is
awarded a medal or silver watch.

In Switzerland almost alone we find emphasis
placed upon the pedagogic and the utilitarian
value of the school garden. For some years,
the Swiss have kept both ends equally in view.

THE EVOLUTION OF THE SCHOOL GARDEN

In the middle grade of the primary schools,
pupils acquire some knowledge of agriculture.
Instruction is given in soils and their fer-
tilization and in practical field work. Such
instruction, like the nature work in our own
schools, is a part of the regular curriculum.
Its aim is pedagogical. The utilitarian informa-
tion given is incidental, though, of course, it
appears otherwise to the child and often to the
child's parents. The main object of the study is
to train to better mental grasp by developing the
power of observation, the skilful use of the finer
muscles of the hands, and by experience through
practical lessons in cause and effect.

Turning for a moment to Canada, where, in the
spring of 1904, a group of school gardens was
established in each of the provinces of On-
tario, Quebec, New Brunswick, Nova Scotia and
Prince Edward's Island, we encounter the work
of Dr. James W. Robertson,* former Commis-
sioner of Agriculture and Dairying and until lately
director of the Macdonald Fund and President of
Macdonald College at Ste. Anne de Bellevue. The
Macdonald Fund for the establishment of the
Macdonald schools throughout the eastern prov-
inces, Macdonald Institute at Guelph, Canada,
neighbor to the Ontario Agricultural College, and
Macdonald College recently established at Ste.
Anne de Bellevue in the province of Quebec, were

* Dr. Robertson is known as the "Agricultural Wizard of the
North."

AMONG SCHOOL GARDENS

the gifts of Sir William C. Macdonald of Mont-
real.

'The Macdonald movement "aims at helping
the rural population to understand better what
education is and what it aims at for them and their
children." It deals on the one side with the im-
provement of homes through its preparation of

Macdonald College, Ste. Anne de Bellevue. School Garden
ON the "Group Plan"

teachers in domestic science and household art,
and on the other with the betterment of rural
home conditions through improvement of the
school life and modification of the curriculum to
meet the needs of rural districts. As a vital
factor bearing upon the life of the community,
and as pedagogically sound, it introduced in addi-

THE EVOLUTION OF THE SCHOOL GARDEN

tion to manual training, the school garden, whose
influence and worth had already been demon-
strated at Toronto in the Broadview Gardens at-
tached to the Boys' Brigade institute,* and on a
larger scale by Dr. Mac-
Kay, superintendent of
education in the Nova
Scotia schools. As early
as 1904, Nova Scotia had
some 79 gardens, and the
maritime provinces have
sent the greater number
of teachers to Macdonald
Institute for the spring
and summer courses.

The Macdonald school
gardens put in the back-
ground European ideas
of utility, whether eco-
nomic or as preliminary to a scientific study
of agriculture. Insisting that "nearly all such

* This Institute, under Captain Atkinson, is a self-governing club,
carrying on evening classes; two joint stock corporations (one dealing
in honey, one in maple syrup); and a garden on a township plan of
control. The boys pay for their garden privilege. They make what
they can from their produce, even being allowed to speculate by
hiring some of their fellow farmers to work for them or by buying
standing crops. This practice is guarded somewhat, and is defended
on the ground that "such is life," where foresight, brains, industry,
rightly count more than short-sighted contentment with being just
a "hewer of wood" or unskilled tiller of land. Plots near the street
are sold only to good gardeners. In ic)o8 one boy took $18 in prize
money alone.

Section of a "Group" Gar-
deniOneorTwo Children
ON Each Vegetable Plot

AMONG SCHOOL GARDENS

gardens stop short with a certain amount of
scientific information and the habit of careful
observation," these Canadian gardens while "de-
signed to encourage the cultivation of the soil as
an ideal life work, intend to promote above all
things else symmetrical education of the indi-
vidual." Hence, in order that this attitude might

Macdonald Institute, Guelph, School Gardens, July, iqoq

be emphasized and the gardens become a factor in
an educational movement, Dr. Robertson brought
them under the Department of Education in each
province rather than under the Department of
Agriculture. Twenty-one school gardens were
started and were maintained free of cost to either
pupils or the public for three years. The various
provinces passed Orders in Council incorporating

THE EVOLUTION OF THE SCHOOL GARDEN

them into their educational systems, thus placing
the school gardens of Canada on a broader educa-
tional basis than those of any other state or
country.

3i63^»*^»^'»'^)"^4*f;«^ir4«:^»e3KJ^^

BowEsviLLE School Grounds, Canada

"The Macdonald school gardens not only have
a recognized place in the provincial systems of
education, but they are attached to the ordinary
rural schools, owned by the school corporation,

AMONG SCHOOL GARDENS

and conducted under the authority of the school
trustees and with the express approval of the rate
payers. The work of the garden is recognized
as a legitimate part of the school program and it
is already interwoven with a considerable part of
the other studies. The garden is becoming the
outer classroom of the school, and its plots are its
blackboards. The garden is not an innovation, or
an excrescence, or an addendum, or a diversion.
It is a happy field of expression, an organic part
of the school in which the boys and girls work
among growing things and grow themselves in
body and mind and spiritual outlook."*

At the beginning of the movement, six teachers
of experience in the rural schools were selected and
sent, at the expense of the Macdonald fund, for
special studies to the Ontario Agricultural Col-
lege at Guelph and to Chicago, Cornell, Columbia
and Clark universities. They were specially
trained to supervise the work in each of the
provinces.! The general plan was to have the
gardens started in groups of five schools each, at
distances of from seven to fifteen or more miles
apart, and to have traveling instructors superin-

* Cowley, R. H.: The Macdonald School Gardens of Canada,
Queen's Quarterly, p. 401.

t For the present requirements for teachers see Elementary
Agriculture and Horticulture and School Gardens in Village and
Rural Schools. Explanatory and Descriptive Circular No. 13,
Sept. 1907, July, iQOQ, issued by Department of Education, Toronto,
Canada. Also programs of Summer School for Teachers, issued by
Macdonald Institute, Guelph. See Appendix A, Note 2.

THE EVOLUTION OF THE SCHOOL GARDEN

tend the work of each group. By these means the
value of the work became known to as many
taxpayers as possible. To further this end, the
gardens were open to inspection at all times and
their pupils encouraged to try for prizes at the
county fairs. "In many places the people have
taken up the experiment with an openmindedness

Teachers' Class Visiting the Merden School Gardens, Canada

that has already carried it far on the way to
success." Today, with the exception of Quebec,
where a dual system of schools (Protestant and
Catholic) exists, the Macdonald school gardens,
some twenty-nine in number, are supported largely
by the provinces. In Quebec and in a few in-
stances elsewhere the Macdonald fund still
offers assistance, though its chief work is to

AMONG SCHOOL GARDENS

support the two institutions for the suitable
preparation of leaders and teachers in the "new
education."

Among pioneer school gardens in the United
States, one of the earliest, largest and most com-
plete was that established in 1897 by the National
Cash Register Company of Dayton, Ohio. The
president of the company, after an investigation
of the successes and failures of the men who
had been boys with him, was impressed by
the fact that there had been scarcely a failure
among those boys who had been responsible for
some farm or garden "chores." He decided that
in a very rough neighborhood he would make the
experiment of using the surplus energy of the boys
in practical garden work and let them have the
products of their steady work and business energy.
So gratifying was the result that the garden is to-
day a marked feature of the welfare work for the
employes of the National Cash Register Company.*

About the same time, 1897- 1898, several normal
schools in the east began to offer instruction in
school gardening, notably Hyannis, Massachusetts,
where, by means of the gardening lessons, banking
and business operations were taught, as well as the
correlation of garden work with arithmetic and

* The plots are lo x loo feet. They are for boys old and strong
enough to garden on a scale sufficient, for example, to permit one
boy to provide a family of five with fresh vegetables throughout
the season, and make $5.00 in addition. The boys work under a
competent gardener.

THE EVOLUTION OF THE SCHOOL GARDEN

Other studies of the schoolroom. South Framing-
ham, Massachusetts; Willimantic, Connecticut;
Hampton, Virginia;* Johnson, Vermont, soon fell
into line. In the west, the development of the
garden in connection with rural and consolidated
schools, was taken up with energy. f Salt Lake
City, Utah; Silver Lake, New Mexico; Joliet,
Illinois; Louisville, Kentucky; St. Louis, Missouri;
Menomonie, Wisconsin; and Los Angeles, Cal-
ifornia, were among the pioneers. | The Normal
School of Washington, D. C, introduced the work,
and Congress finally made a small grant for gardens
in the District of Columbia. By 1904, Circular
13, issued by the Department of Education of the
state of Vermont, reported in all from fifteen to
twenty normal schools and ten or twelve agri-
cultural colleges throughout the country as dis-
playing much interest and activity in the school

* The Whittier School is the practice school of the Institute.
It is also a free public school. Probably no school garden in the
country has had a greater influence than that of the Whittier School.
It reaches about 300 of its own children and through the work of the
normal department of Hampton, hundreds of teachers and thousands
of children of the colored and Indian races.

t Supt. O. J. Kern's work in Winnebago County, 111., is especially
noteworthy. See Annual Reports of the Winnebago County Schools
and also his Among Country Schools, Ginn and Co., Boston, IQ06.

X This chapter confines itself to a brief mention of those cities
or gardens where pioneer work was done and to an outline of its
development up to the present time when there are too many towns
and cities engaged in the work to enumerate them. Later in the
book special references are made to some of the striking details
in the work of different localities.

AMONG SCHOOL GARDENS

garden movement. Preparation was thus being
made for putting school garden instruction on a
pedagogical basis and preparing teachers for their
work.

Since 1904, other institutions, such as New
York University, Amherst Agricultural College,
Storrs, the Chautauqua Assembly, have opened

Morgan School, Washington, D. C.

short summer courses for teachers, and in 1909
the University of Pennsylvania gave a course of
four lectures, oifering as an object lesson to its
summer students a school garden cultivated by
the children of Philadelphia.* Both lectures and

* Already farmers' institutes of several states have officially
endorsed the school garden; summer schools are offering courses for
its advancement. The agricultural colleges of Indiana, Illinois, Iowa,
Minnesota, Ohio, Nebraska, Rhode Island, Tennessee, Wisconsin, and

THE EVOLUTION OF THE SCHOOL GARDEN

garden were conducted by the city supervisor of
school gardens. Cornell in her Agricultural Col-
lege offers helpful courses, and constantly seeks to
arouse and sustain interest in the outdoor world
and particularly in rural life, by means of her
many bulletins. The Rural School Leaflets and
Home Nature Study Course are widely distributed.
In the central west, the Cleveland Home Garden-
ing Association began its work in 1900 with the
distribution of 48,868 penny packets of seeds.
In the following year, it instituted a test garden
in the center of the city. It has continued and
greatly increased its work both with adults and
with the school children under the direction of the
able curator of school gardens. Miss Louise Klein
Miller. The Cleveland board of education was
the first to appreciate the value of school garden
work and to create the office of curator. The
curator is not on the educational staff but holds
office under the administrative department and is
responsible to the director of schools. The board
places at the curator's disposal three laborers and
in 1909 gave her an assistant teacher. While
laying much stress on the nine school gardens
connected with its schools and steadily enlarging
their number, it particularly emphasizes school-
others among the states are doing what they can in the way of
training teachers. In iQog the Rhode Island College provided a
traveling supervisor for the gardens already established in Provi-
dence and Newport. Normal schools and colleges are also providing
winter courses, giving the teachers either Saturday lectures or more
extended courses through a part of the year's session.

AMONG SCHOOL GARDENS

ground decoration. The board encourages but
does not enforce correlation of school garden
work with routine studies.* It does not, in
any grade, compel the children to work in the
gardens. However, it conducts gardens through-
out the year, and provides for informal in-
struction by the curator, for lectures on garden-
ing in the schools in the spring, and for flower
shows in September and October. Co-operating
with the Home Gardening Association of Cleve-
land, the board approves the association's vacant
lot work and its training garden, where boy
farmers are taught simple truck farming.f To-
gether, they encourage the children to purchase
bulbs and seeds, to plant home gardens, and to
take an interest in the flower shows and festivals
at which prizes are offered by the association or
its friends. In school ground decoration the
children usually have some part, either in the
planting, or care or both. Today, Cleveland has
more than 50,000 home gardens due to the influence
of the school garden and the efforts of the Home
Gardening Association. The latter distributes seed
packets and bulbs by the hundred thousands both
in Cleveland and in outside territory. |

* The curator has worked out a system of correlation in arithmetic,
geography, drawing and manual training which is optional.

t Plots in the training ground are 14 x 25 feet and 28 x 50 feet, in
all about 65 plots, and are for boys from ten to fourteen years of age.

J Outside of Cleveland in IQ09, 421,611 seed packets were dis-
tributed.

The Home Gardening Association.

SEEDS FOR 1908.
Price One Cent a Packet.

Mark opposite the variety the number of packets wanted.
Separate Colors Cannot be Ordered.

FLOWER SEEDS.

Aster, mixed,
Scarlet, White and Rose.
15 inches high.

Morning Glory, a climber,
mixed colors,
12 ft. high.

Bachelor's Button or Corn-
flower, inixe<l, I'hie, Pink
;iii(l \\ bile, 2 fl. liigh.

Nasturtium, a climber, mixed
Yellow, Orange and Red,
6 ft. high.

China Pinks, mixed,
Pink, Scarlet, White, and
Lilac, 6 inches high.

Petunia,

Purple and White,
I ft. high.

Calendula,
Yellow and Orange,
I ft. high.

Phlox, mixed (annual),
Scarlet, Pink and White,
I ft. high.

Candytuft— mixed.

White, Pink and Red.
I ft. high.

Portulaca,

mixed colors,
4 inches high.

Four-O'clock,

Yellow, White and Crim-
son, 2 ft. high.

Scabiosa, or Pincushion,
mixed. Rid, Lilac and
Pink, iVi ft. high.

Larkspur,

Blue, White and Pink.
2 ft. high.

Verbena, mixed.
White, Scarlet, Purple,
6 inches high.

Marigold, French,
Yellow and Brown,
I ft. high.

Zinnia, double,
Scarlet,
2 ft. high.

VEGETABLE SEEDS. |

Beans, bush,
1 ft. high,
Plant about May ist.

Onions.

I ft. high.

Plant about April 15th.

Beets.

9 inches high.

Plant about April 25th.

Radishes.

6 inches high.

Plant about April 15th.

Carrots.

6 inches high.

Plant about May 15th.

Spinach,

6 inches high.

Plant about April 15th.

Lettuce.

9 inches high.

Plant about April 15th.

Sweet Corn,

6 ft. high.

Plant about May xsth.

Return this envelope to the teacher, with your money. Do not put
money in this envelope.

No. of packets Amount cents.

School Grade No. of Room

Your seeds will be delivered in this Envelope about April 15th.
Prepare your garden early in April. Select the sunniest part of your
yard, but avoid a place where the drippings from the roof will fall on
the bed. Dig deep— a full foot— and break up the lumps. Soil with
well-rotted manure dug in will give better results than poor soil.
Vegetables require good, rich soil.

AMONG SCHOOL GARDENS

In New England the pioneer work of establish-
ing school gardens was, as has been said, begun
under the influence of the Massachusetts Horticul-
tural Society; and a little later the Massachu-
setts Civic League, the Woman's Auxiliary of the
American Park and Outdoor Art Association,
the Twentieth Century Club and the Normal

School of Horticulture, Hartford, Conn.

School of Boston as well as other clubs, schools
and village improvement societies throughout the
state, took up the work.

In Connecticut, the Rev. Dr. Francis Goodwin
in 1900 founded the Hartford School of Horti-
culture. The enterprise of the Women's Civic
Club of that city, shortly after, started a garden

Bovs' Plots, School of Horticulture

THE EVOLUTION OF THE SCHOOL GARDEN

in the public park, which has now been taken over
by the board of
school visitors as
one of the several
gardens main-
tained by them.
Dr. Goodwin
founded the
School of Horti-
culture to give
opportunity for
individual work
and graded train-
ing to the boys

of the Watkinson Farm School of which he was a
trustee. Under Mr. Herbert Hemenway the work

of the School of
Horticulture was
broadened to in-
clude city boys
and girls, teach-
ers' classes, and
gardens for adult
men and women
who wished to cul-
tivate a plot un-
der expert super-
vision or advice.
Recently, under
the present direc-
tor, Mr. Stanley H. Rood, lecture courses have also

A Teacher's Garden, School of
Horticulture

AMONG SCHOOL GARDENS

been given to teachers by experts upon such
practical problems as soils and their treatment,
and other agricultural topics.

Another pioneer garden serving as a model for
the peculiar needs of congested districts in large
cities, is that of DeWitt Clinton Park School Farm
of New York, originated and started in 1901

DeWitt Clinton Park School Garden, New York City

by Mrs. Henry Parsons. It has given inspira-
tion to many people to start other gardens upon
similar lines. Its work was exhibited on a small
scale at both the St. Louis and Jamestown Ex-
positions. On little 4x8 foot plots by a system
of two plantings, one in May and one in July, it
takes some thousand children off the city streets,
furnishes nature study material to schools and vis-

THE EVOLUTION OF THE SCHOOL GARDEN

iting classes, and gives to a number of crippled
children brought there each week, some happy
hours working over their little farms, or superin-
tending such work when it must be done by stronger
arms. The School Farm, with its flowers, its regu-
lar lines of vegetables, its grains and observation
plots, presents an almost park-like appearance to
the neighborhood.

The earlier work of Philadelphia with its con-
stantly increasing number of school gardens, the
work in Washington, D. C, and the successful
Fairview Garden School of Yonkers, New York,
should be mentioned among the pioneers.

Philadelphia stands out today as the city whose
board of education most fully recognizes, from
the pedagogical and educational standpoint, the
value of the school garden. It appoints a su-
pervisor of school gardens (Miss Stella Nathan) ;
incorporates the work into its school system in cer-
tain grades, and maintains the gardens throughout
the growing season. The teaching in the gardens,
therefore, follows a prescribed course, yet loses
none of its joyous, vital interest to the children.
This instruction is correlated in the school room
work "from the kindergarten to the senior class
of the normal school." Philadelphia now has
8 school gardens, accommodating from 150 to
200 children each, 22 kindergarten and 1764
home gardens. It is intended in the coming
year that these last shall be regularly supervised
by one of the staff of gardening instructors in the

AMONG SCHOOL GARDENS

neighborhood where they are located. The de-
tails of this work as well as that of Cleveland will
be taken up later. These two cities are foremost
in demonstrating the value of the school garden
and in honoring it by placing their respective cura-
tor and supervisor in high official positions, with
suitable appropriations for their work.

In the United States school gardens are spread-
ing rapidly, and the work is becoming more and
more recognized as worthy of a place in local
educational systems. At the national capital,
the District of Columbia, limited by the terms
of the Congressional appropriation of $1200 for
school gardens, which forbid the use of the
money for salaries, does the next best thing
and appoints Miss Susan B. Sipe, one of the
teachers in the Normal School, at a nominal
salary, as supervisor of nature study and school
gardens in the District of Columbia. A course in
nature study has been prepared defining the work
from grade to grade and so systematized that
each child has a "required amount of work in the
school garden just as he has in arithmetic, reading,
etc." Washington has four large school gardens
on vacant lots, and for school-ground decoration
Miss Sipe counts 100 white and 50 colored schools
in all but 3 of which the children have some part
in the planting and care. Moreover, as empha-
sizing the value of her work, the United States
Department of Agriculture has made her a colla-
borator in the Bureau of Plant Industry and fur-

THE EVOLUTION OF THE SCHOOL GARDEN

nished her with a greenhouse for the instruc-
tion of normal students in school garden teach-
ing. These pupils are required to conduct home
gardens under supervision. The Bureau of Plant
Industry, together with the Office of Experi-
ment Stations, works with the schools, furnish-

CoRNER OF Ludlow Schoolyard, Washington, D. C.

ing the supervisor with plants, seeds and other
material.

Nor does the United States government stop
here in its furtherance of the movement. It has
published a large number of bulletins on school
gardens and allied topics which may be had by
application to the Secretary of Agriculture. The

AMONG SCHOOL GARDENS

Bureau of Plant Industry furnishes a large amount
of seeds in answer to "school requests," which
latter have steadily increased in number since
1904, and now come from every state in the
Union, mounting into the thousands.* These
seeds are put up in four sets; namely, flowers,
vegetables, decorative and economic. Each of
the first two sets contains five packets of differ-
ent kinds of seed. The decorative set contains
ten and the economic eighteen packets, with
enough of each kind to plant a square rod of
ground. Three of the most important Farmers'
Bulletins are No. 195, Annual Flowering Plants;
No. 218, The School Garden; and No. 134, Tree
Planting on Rural School Grounds. One of great
interest. No. 204, Gardening and Nature Study in
English Schools, Office of Experiment Stations,
has been referred to.

The school requests indicate a widespread
interest in garden work for children. As yet one
may readily count the number of gardens that
have risen into prominence because of their excep-
tionally fine work. There are, however, with and

* In 1908, 1400 requests for seeds came from approximately
4200 schools and ranged from one order of each set of flower and
vegetable seeds to sometimes as many as 300 of these, and usually
included decorative and economic sets. The economic set includes
grasses, cereals, forage and fibre plants so that the children may
become familiar with staple crops grown elsewhere than in their
own locality. There was enough of each kind of seed to plant a
square rod of ground. Requests for from 50 to 100 sets were not
uncommon.

THE EVOLUTION OF THE SCHOOL GARDEN

without government help, hundreds of school gar-
dens cultivated by from 20 to 200 children each, in
scattered towns and cities from Maine to Virginia,
and from the Mississippi to the Atlantic, that are
quietly doing good work the excellence of which
in many cases has not come to public notice.
In the south and middle west and in the far coast

Second Grade Children Making Cuttings.
Washington, D. C.

Normal School,

states, in territory with which the writer is not
personally familiar, there are thousands of tenta-
tive attempts to utilize this new factor in educa-
tion.

As a rule, the normal schools have been the
first to endorse the school garden and to try out
its value, while boards of education have viewed

AMONG SCHOOL GARDENS

it as a new thing requiring it to prove its educa-
tional and social worth. Frequently they give it
a meagre support, recognizing it perhaps by the
appointment of a nature study teacher as a super-
visor of school gardens, but granting little or no
money toward either the maintenance of the garden
or a reasonable salary to cover the summer's work
of supervision. Sometimes this lack of support is
due to a division of opinion among the school com-
missioners or among members of the boards of
estimate. It may meet the opposition of the older
and more conservative principals of the city, or of
a ward politician who sees no sense in it and is
afraid that the voters will look upon it as a new
fad or a new excuse for increasing taxes.

Generally, the school garden idea has captured
the educational leaders in our country, made
friends for itself among the most progressive of
our teachers, old and new, and won the children
wherever it has been tried. One drawback to its
rapid growth is that there is still confusion be-
cause of the stress that has been laid sometimes
upon theoretical views; or upon its peculiar fitness
to meet the special needs of particular places.
These lesser questions can be safely left to settle
themselves, for a school garden is like a bank in
that it may be drawn upon for values of different
kinds to meet different needs, as one may require
money in the form of gold or silver, check or draft.
In a school garden the educational, economic,
aesthetic, utilitarian, or sociological value may be

THE EVOLUTION OF THE SCHOOL GARDEN

made most prominent, according to circumstances.
Its power for developing a child's nature should
not be confined to only one of these viewpoints;
neither should it be considered appropriate to one
stratum of society or to a few classes of children
only. It may ease the condition of the poor and
bring profit and pleasure to their children. To
the children of the rich and well to do it will give
pleasure, and should teach some needed lessons in

Macdonald Consolidated School and Gardens, Guelph

personal responsibility and in the consequences of
broken laws from which it is human nature to
think that one may escape.

So long as the educational value of school
gardens is not fully recognized by local school
boards, just so long will they be dependent for
their support upon philanthropic societies or upon
the good will of private individuals, and be subject
to the discouragement of loose tenure and shift of
locality as land values rise. Until very recently

AMONG SCHOOL GARDENS

those interested in agriculture or horticulture or
in attempts to benefit social conditions have been
most active in establishing them.* It is interest-
ing to note how many gardens like those at
Yonkers, at Pittsburgh, at Dubuque and, in part,
at Cleveland, have developed into social centers.
Among educators, friends of the school garden
are multiplying rapidly, and increasing numbers
believe "that instruction such as is given in the
school garden is of the right kind. It arouses
interest in real things; it develops judgment;
it brings the child in contact with his envi-
ronment, and above all, it gives that opportunity
for placing responsibility on the child without
which character is not developed. The activi-
ties of school garden work are natural to the child
and give much needed respite from school-room
restraint. . . . The child's mind gets growth
out of them because it can understand them.
Not only does the school garden serve to edu-
cate and train, but it supplies a kind of knowledge

* The National Plant, Flower and Fruit Guild encourages school
gardens and through its local branches assists in starting them.

The International School Farm League seeks to develop the
school garden in connection with schools, parks, institutions and day
camps, as an educational, recreational, sociological, and remedial
agency.

The Gardening Association of America, organized October, 1909,
in Buffalo, gives equal emphasis to vacant lot and school gardening
and will encourage both because of their tendency to benefit the
poor, to show the power of self-help, to further agricultural interests,
to lessen the evil influences of city life and to cultivate a love of
growing plants.

Q
Qi
<

_i
o
o

THE EVOLUTION OF THE SCHOOL GARDEN

that is highly useful and cultivates a taste for
an honorable and remunerative vocation."*

Perhaps best of all is that teaching of the saner
and sweeter side of life which comes when the
school garden takes the child off the city streets,
away from crowded alleys, vicious surroundings,
and, in the country, often from misspent leisure;
when it finds happy work for idle hands, health for
enfeebled bodies, and training for the will and affec-
tions. If you doubt the last service, watch the
child's love for the flowers and vegetables he has
made to grow, and the affectionate pride of his
parents in the success of his garden. Sometimes
a selfish interest in what the child can provide for
the family table has brought him more considera-
tion and developed greater gentleness and co-
operation in the family life. It has proved just
as well to "stand in" with the little farmer who
can provide otherwise unattainable delicacies of
fresh vegetables, salads and soup materials.

All these things make any kind of a garden
worth while, and, if we utilize the interest in it
to freshen the wearisome tasks of the school-
room, there is an added value. The dullest
child will brighten as he or she lays out the little
plot, figures out the crops, or calculates the gains.
The telling of a story with innocent and pleasur-
able self interest as the pivotal point, opens a way
into an easier and better land of composition than
was dreamed of before; while history and geog-

*SpilIman, W. J.: Significance of the School Garden Movement
37

AMONG SCHOOL GARDENS

raphy, textiles, food and clothing have surprising
relations to a garden which an occasional apt
reference or illustration can bring out. More and
more it is being made the partner of physical
geography. In every school it should be the twin
of nature study and usually the companion of
manual training. It is easy to show how much
we owe to the husbandman; how the life of the
whole round world is inter-dependent, or in a child's
phraseology, "hangs together"; how tilling of the
soil is a fundamental necessity. No child who has
ever loved a garden will despise the farmer, for he
has learned by experience to respect manual labor;
and that brains and hands must work together to
bring good crops.

CHAPTER II

DIFFERENT KINDS OF SCHOOL
GARDENS

CHAPTER II

DIFFERENT KINDS OF SCHOOL
GARDENS

"Why should you give your pupils the benefit of a school garden?
Because it brings Hving principles home to the children, and school is
living — not a preparation for life. Because it enables the children
to solve for themselves, under the law of necessity, some of the most
difficult problems which the school course has to offer. . . Because
the garden supplies ideal conditions for cultivating the hand and the
heart as well as the head." — S. T. Palmer.

" In town schools the best plan is to begin with the school garden
and emphasize the jesthetic side; then work out to beautify the
city, and on this basis work out to the great typical processes of
agriculture. In rural schools, the most successful agricultural in-
struction is that which begins with the agricultural activities of the
local environment, and which finds in these activities certain problems
which then become subjects of investigation, and even experiment
in a school garden." — B. M. Davis.

SCHOOL gardens may be regarded from
several points of view and cultivated with
one or more of several aims in mind so
far as the immediate or future good of the child
is concerned. But whatever the special purpose,
there should be kept in mind the far reaching in-
fluences that will pervade a neighborhood when a
successful school garden so inspires the children
and parents that little gardens in home yard or
window box spring up as restful, cheerful bits of
4 41

AMONG SCHOOL GARDENS

color. These are a bond of sympathy and pleasure
among the poor, the well to do and the wealthy.
There is no hobby that may be so inexpensive; no
subject of conversation less likely to become dis-
agreeably personal; no topic offering better oppor-
tunities of give and take in the matter of experience

Could You Do Better?

than that of flowers. So it follows that a love of
flowers tends to level class distinctions; to give
openings for real friendliness based upon mutual
interests among people whose business and en-
vironment may be vastly different. Moreover, the
individual betterment that comes from any worthy
hobby follows in the wake of flower culture.

DIFFERENT KINDS OF SCHOOL GARDENS

Considering school gardens from the point of
view of maintenance, including organization and
purpose, they may be divided into four classes:
(i) those maintained by individuals, corporations,
clubs, philanthropic organizations, playground
associations, civic clubs and village improvement
societies; (2) gardens supported by and under the
control of park commissioners or city recreation
bureaus* or boards of public works; (3) those
maintained by school commissioners, trustees, or
boards of education, in connection with schools,
whether as experiments, as features of vacation
schools, or as accepted and valuable parts of the
school system for which distinct appropriation is
made. A fourth class might include many exist-
ing gardens where the experiment is maintained
by a combination of any two of the above
named agencies, as when land is furnished by
school board or park commissioners, and means
for equipment are supplied by club or private
subscription.

In the matter of organization, park or school
boards usually appoint the head and assistant
teachers of gardens under municipal control.
Where a club supports a garden, a committee of
ways and means is chosen to select the head
teacher, to whom is turned over the entire re-
sponsibility of running the garden. In either
case, reasonable consideration should be shown

* St. Louis Park Department Public Recreation Commission
supports its children's gardens.

AMONG SCHOOL GARDENS

the head-worker in the garden, and deference paid
to her knowledge of the most desirable type of
assistant (training and personality considered)
that the particular garden requires.

One city selects assistants from such of its
regular elementary grade teachers as are en-
rolled upon the eligible list. It employs them
in groups of two or more to serve in the gardens
either in the afternoon or forenoon for five days
each week from July to September and pays them
$12 per week. The gardens are also open for
work after school hours and on Saturdays in
June and September. No insect study or other
allied work with garden material is required;
the lessons are confined to elementary gardening.
The teachers must have had at least one season
under experienced supervision in growing the crops
that the children will raise. These gardens have
a floral border filled by the overflow from the
city's park supply but with room enough left for
the children to grow a few plants as their contribu-
tion to the beauty of the whole. The individual
plots or farms stand for individual care and rights,
— even to the right of carelessness as an instructive
example. The border demands of the little citizen
his or her share of responsibility for the commu-
nity's standard of order, beauty and co-operation.

In cities where there are a large number of
gardens, often of various types, an inspector,
supervisor or curator of gardens is appointed,
with assistants in each garden to carry out plans

DIFFERENT KINDS OF SCHOOL GARDENS

and instructions. Such assistants may be grade
or special teachers, janitors, gardeners, or even
some of the more capable children who are selected
to have an oversight over their mates and feel
highly honored by the titles of section leader,
tool keeper, head gardener, monitor, or even
constable, and are held responsible for the orderly
behavior as well as for the work of their charges.
The following report gives an illustration of active
co-operation by the children in the supervision of
the garden work.

Secretary's Report

Minneapolis, Minn.
April 20, 1909
To the Honorable Members of B Room:

Pierce School.
1 have the honor to transmit the following report.

The B Room held its first business meeting on
tuesday April 20, 1909 at 9: a. m. Our principal,
Mrs. Mary D. La Rue presided over the meeting, and
the following ofificers were elected by ballots.

Henry Johnson was elected superintendent of the
garden. To assist him, the following eight section
superintendents were chosen; Blanche Uptergrove,
Lewin Olsen, Clarence Hansen, Mary Falconer, Bennie
Anderson, Henry Johnson, Helmer Hammer, William
Uptergrove and Abner Anderson. Ruth McDonald
was elected Treasurer. Mildred Formoe was elected
Secretary. Special work was given to each officer, who
has the power to [choose] the helpers that he may need.

Respectfully Submitted
Mildred Formoe

Secretary
Age 12 years. B 6 Pierce

AMONG SCHOOL GARDENS

In very many cases, the assistants are regular
teachers who volunteer during the spring term for
the extra hours of work in their desire to hasten
the day when the school garden shall become an
established feature of their school. Where a
garden is part of a school a principal will often
supervise the work and arrange that each grade
teacher shall have time to take her children to
the garden for an hour or so in the course of
each week; while, if the garden is carried through
the summer, a school teacher (sometimes the
principal) is hired for the vacation period. Some-
times the garden may be cared for during the
summer by the janitor or by a committee of the
children who remain in town.

Turning to the kinds of gardens considered
according to environment and purpose, and fol-
lowing the analogy of flowers, they may be divided
into two orders with several varieties in each;
namely, (I) The urban or city school garden,
answering to the needs of towns and cities, and
(II) the suburban or rural, answering to the needs
of small villages and country districts, the two
classes being subdivided according to the particu-
lar object in mind in the laying out of each.
For instance, gardens aiming especially at school-
ground decoration would occur in both main
divisions in connection with both city and rural
schools. And again, gardens for experimental
purposes, designed to make clear the use of
fertilizers, the development or deterioration of

DIFFERENT KINDS OF SCHOOL GARDENS

crops, and like work, would have a place under
rural school gardens and also, to some extent, in
almost any well-conducted city garden. The
growing of vegetables or flowers or of both as the
child's very own property would enter into nearly
all varieties of gardens; consequently, this sim-
plest and most frequent form of school gardening
may be taken as a "fundamental type," just as
there is at the other end of the scale the rarely
attained and, at first, seemingly costly ideal, a
"model school garden." The latter is not costly,
however, if measured by effectiveness of results,
and the education that can be accomplished
through it.

The ideal school garden includes the formal or
ornamental garden that should be the setting of
every model school building; large and separate
playgrounds for boys and girls, with screened
and vine-covered outbuildings, where necessary;
a large garden, having individual and co-operative
flower and vegetable plots, also some for obser-
vation or experiment ("sample plots," they are
frequently called), and larger areas for forestry,
grapery, nursery and the growing of small fruits.
There should be hot and cold frames for forcing,
and a small greenhouse. Most important of all,
there should be a controllable water supply and,
if possible, a basin or pond for aquatic life. An
equipment of tools and a toolhouse are necessary,
and an arbor should be provided which may also
be used as an outdoor lecture room or for shelter

AMONG SCHOOL GARDENS

from sudden showers. Sun dial, weather vane
and rain gauge, together with barometer and
thermometer for daily observations should be
at hand. To be complete, the model garden
should have a suitable place for storing fertilizers,
seeds and garden requisites, and even a small
suite of household rooms with lecture room and
laboratory for carrying on the home laboratory

i^^^sEsm^^

Housekeeping Room, DeWitt Clinton Park, New York City

and lecture work for which the garden furnishes
both material and opportunity.*

This may be ideal and rarely attainable at the
start. It is often better to work up to this com-

* DeWitt Clinton Park School Farm Garden has such a suite of
rooms, including those for tools and for laboratory work, in the
basement of the pergola that bounds the garden on the Hudson
River side. In these, elementary lessons in housewifery as well as
in agriculture are conducted.

DIFFERENT KINDS OF SCHOOL GARDENS

plete garden; to have it built up gradually by the
children and their interested associates and older
friends. Yet in cities where there is a system of
gardens it is well to have one such as a model of
attainment.

At the present time there are, as has been said,
school gardens of many varying kinds carried on
for different immediate ends though with the one
underlying and universal purpose of helping the
children to an all round development. Some of
these gardens will be briefly sketched. It is
probably true that the mental picture which the
term "school garden" most frequently calls up is
that of a plot of ground laid out in small individual
beds where the common vegetables, together with
one or two varieties of flowers, are grown;
and larger areas for flowers and observation, or
sample plots, on which are grown various plants
including the common troublesome garden weeds.
In such a garden the children may learn the joy
of individual ownership and of co-operative or
group work as well. They will at the same time,
through sharing in the work on the larger plots,
become familiar with a wider range of plant life
than that which could be grown on their own
small plots. Such a mental picture may have for
its setting the congested quarter of a great city,
a bit of a public park or playground, a part of
town or village schoolyard, or it may be an isolated
vacant lot transformed.

To know how to plan, to care for and conduct
49

AMONG SCHOOL GARDENS

such a garden requires the fundamental knowl-
edge necessary to success in carrying on any kind
of a school garden. For this reason, and because
it is more likely to be the sort of garden attempted
in any locality as an initial experiment, it is here
taken as the basic type, and to it and the work

"Little Bkuihhk Helps"

that may be centered in it, the greater number of
the following chapters are devoted. One may find
such gardens in the east and south, in our middle
and western states, in Canada and in the West In-
dies, though in the last the nature of the crops will
vary considerably from the uniformity common on
the continent. Its plots may be tiny or big, its

DIFFERENT KINDS OF SCHOOL GARDENS

equipment small or large, the scope of its work nar-
row or wide, its quality and quantity graded or un-
graded; but as far as it goes, its teaching and ex-
perience are fundamental, whether for teacher or
child. So to this "fundamental type" we give par
excellence the name " school garden," because in the
mind of psychologist, educator and teacher, it is a
school in which to cultivate, to develop children
quite as much as or more than to teach them
how to grow flowers or to mature vegetables.

This fundamental type offers the largest cultural
development for children in the smallest area. It
demands of the teacher either little or much train-
ing, according to the scope of work carried on in it.
Nowhere is less previous experience required ex-
cept in the tiny posy garden or where, as in some
formal gardens, the work of teacher and children
is confined to a very small amount of supervised
planting, whether of bulbs or seeds, and to the
necessary later care in watering and in keeping the
soil loose. From the likeness of much of the work
in the "fundamental type" to truck gardening,
and from the children's delight in being known as
little farmers owning their small farms, this basic
type might be called not only the "school garden,"
but the "school garden farm."*

* This term would be equally applicable to the usual school
garden in cities and to the extensive school garden tract of five acres
or more which Minnesota requires under the Putnam Bill, or to such
gardens of lesser area, as would be advisable in our agricultural
states. The difference in size would be suggested by the locality
mentioned or by the context in which the term occurred.

AMONG SCHOOL GARDENS

School gardens might then be divided into

[. Urban or City Gardens, including

1. The school garden farm (the one usually adopted

for congested districts).

2. The garden for school-ground decoration.

3. Gardens for special purposes; such as

a. The domestic science or kitchen garden.

b. Gardens for germination or forcing

purposes.

c. Gardens for nursery or forestry purposes.

d. Botanical gardens laid out from the

standpoint of

(i) Plant families.
(2) Commercial or home eco-
nomics.

e. Exchange gardens as clearing houses for

surplus plants.

f. Training gardens or those of considerable

size where stress is particularly laid
on large individual plots and the
training of their owners to truck
farming, even on a commercial scale.

g. Gardens for defective or delinquent

children,
h. Gardens for other specialized aims,
whatever they may be; as, for ex-
ample, for growing material to
illustrate special subjects, or for
children in the kindergarten, etc.

. Suburban or Rural Gardens.

1 . The school garden farm.

2. Gardens for school-ground decoration.

DIFFERENT KINDS OF SCHOOL GARDENS

3. Trial gardens or gardens for experimental work

with plants or crops. (These are often
coupled with No. i.)

4. "Topographical" or chart gardens, leading di-

rectly to a wild flower garden or to school-
ground decoration or to the school garden
farm.

The classification into "group" and "individ-
ual" gardens is not given here because by far the
greater number of gardens in some measure com-
bine the two, and because the term is a distinction
in method of work rather than in character of
gardens.

It is a far cry from the complete outfit of the
ideal garden to taking up the pavement in a school
yard and making 2x2 foot beds for tiny farms.
But, as one cannot expect completeness, so one
may hope to avoid such impoverishment as the
2x2 foot plots would imply. If you cannot do any
better, begin with the 2x2 foot bed and comfort
yourself with the thought of the lesser sum of money
needed and the probability that the question of soil
will resolve itself into buying a few bushels or at
most a few loads of good garden soil, such as would
be necessary in the case of a roof garden.* In
cities, parts, so to speak, of the ideal garden may
be scattered judiciously among the various schools,
in their yards or on nearby vacant lots. For
instance, one school may have only the garden

* A load of earth or gravel is one cubic yard, estimated at 150
shovelfuls.

AMONG SCHOOL GARDENS

for school-ground decoration, very likely of the
formal sort. Here, where plant lines must har-
monize with architectural lines and a color scheme
of continual bloom be carried out, the training
of a landscape gardener, or the advice of an ex-
pert, is necessary. But if the outline of such a

Vacant Lot in Louisville. The First Planting

garden be prepared, the teacher can follow it;
the children can help in cultivating the hedges,
trees and flowers. The garden becomes an object
lesson and pleasure to the neighborhood and of
permanent and increasing value to the school.
To the children, it will be a means of development
in more than one direction.

DIFFERENT KINDS OF SCHOOL GARDENS

A pretty story is told in connection with
the formal garden* of the Watterson School,
Cleveland, Ohio. At the third clipping of the
privet hedge, the cuttings were taken into the
schoolroom and the children were asked if they

[■Vacant Lot in Louisville (see opposite page) After Several
Seasons' Planting

cared enough for their hedge to think that other

* The formal decoration follows the vertical and horizontal lines
of ornament and the color scheme of the school building; vines
are planted only in the deep angles of the building with the intent
to so train them as to make a solid band of green about the base of
the building up to the first horizontal lines of white stone trimming.
Stifif plants and trees of upright growth carry out the vertical lines
while the red and white in the building is repeated in the tan covered
playground and in the continuous bloom of pink and white flowers.

AMONG SCHOOL GARDENS

children in a distant school building would also
like to own one. They were quite sure that a
hedge like theirs would be much appreciated.
The curator of the school gardens then explained
that if the Watterson children were willing, besides
giving the cuttings, to do a little work for those
distant schoolmates, the latter could have a hedge.
They cheerfully agreed to help. For busy work,
they stripped the leaves. Then, they gathered
the cuttings into groups of twos and threes, of
fives and tens, and then into fifties. These
large bundles were sent to another school where
the children would lend their cold frames to
"bank" or house the cuttings during the winter
and to give them an early start so that the new
hedge would be ready as soon as possible to
make rapid and sturdy growth. Some of the
children in the Watterson school were given the
stripped leaves, with which they were told to lay
out on their desks designs of any shape. Later,
there was a little nature study talk upon the con-
struction of the leaf and how it serves the parent
plant, and attention was called to the difference in
color of the upper and under sides. The children
were asked to remake their designs using the two
shades for color effect. They were promised that
they would be shown how the young plants had lain
dormant through the winter and how they started
into life in the early spring, and were told that
they could visit the other school to see the hedge
which they had prepared for its boys and girls.

DIFFERENT KINDS OF SCHOOL GARDENS

The Story suggests gardens for special purposes;
as for preparation for truck farming ("training
gardens"); for exchange of plants; for forcing;
for nursery or forestry purposes; or the kitchen
garden which might be attached t6 a school where
the cooking courses were particularly good. In
connection with any of these gardens, there might
be a few flowers or a floral border so that the work
could be partly individual, partly co-operative.
In the kitchen garden there could be in addition,
observation plots showing sweet herbs, grains, flax,
hemp and cotton, or the raw products necessary
for the commonest household tasks. Observation
plots on a large numerical scale are necessary in
botanical gardens laid out to show the classifica-
tion of plants by families or according to their in-
dustrial or commercial uses. Here again, plots
can be apportioned to individual children, and
special cultural directions may be given to each
when necessary. The exchange garden above re-
ferred to is carried on perhaps as much for the
benefit of the parents as for the little ones. It
is a central garden to which men, women and
children can bring their extra or duplicate plants
and exchange them for those of which others had
a surplus. In Cleveland such a garden made in
one year 20,000 exchanges. That means not only
a good deal of pleasure, but much return for little
money.

No city offers better opportunity to study the
various kinds of gardens than Cleveland with its
5 57

AMONG SCHOOL GARDENS

nine school gardens and the stress it lays upon
school-ground decoration. Miss Miller, in the
Watterson and the new Technical High Schools,
gives two excellent examples of formal planting,
and about many of the older school buildings, some
of which present rather hard propositions for the
gardener, there are good decorative effects. Of
the nine gardens, Rosedale* alone approaches com-
pleteness. Among the others, for lack of space,
different kinds of gardening are divided. In addi-
tion, Cleveland has gardens on vacant lots and
one, the Training Garden, conducted by the Home
Gardening Association. At present, the work in
the last named is divided between the junior and
senior boys. It is, however, the intention of the
association to develop a graded course of three or
four years, so that a boy may here or on a farm,
which will later be connected with the garden, learn
enough agriculture to earn his living as a truck
gardener or be inspired to fmd his way to an agri-
cultural college, if he wishes to study general or
special farming. Already the association and its
friends have rewarded one boy by a scholarship at
the Wooster State Agricultural College and expect
to appoint him assistant in the Training Garden
because being city born and bred yet trained
in agriculture, he can attract and teach city
boys effectively.

A celebrated physician and neurologist tells us
that exercise of the muscles is absolutely necessary

* See Appendix A, Note 3.
58

DIFFERENT KINDS OF SCHOOL GARDENS

to develop a healthy brain, to prevent imbecility,
"for all thought has a motor side or element."*
It is upon this demonstrated proposition that the
educational value of manual training is based.
It cannot be too often repeated that the brain
should be trained in childhood not only by intel-
lectual processes but by the development of the
smaller muscles, especially those of the hands, by
the constant requisition upon sensory and motor
nerves, and by the constant quickening of sense
perception. The result is intellectual power. It
is psychologically sound, then, to propose hand
training for those mentally deficient, provided
that what is proposed is within the grasp of their
low mentality.

With some imbecile children tools might be
dangerous to themselves or to their fellows; with
those less mentally deficient, the simplest forms
of manual training may be undertaken provided
they require only such amount of thought or
work as shall gently and gradually stimulate the
brain. Simple garden work, varied in require-
ments from cleaning up paths, picking flowers
for bouquets or spent blossoms lest they go to
seed, and tasks as simple, up through the scale to
more exact or difficult duties, offers hand training
and gives pleasurable hours of work which may
be divided into periods suited to the individual
strength and fitful moods of the feeble minded.
Thus in schools where the mentally deficient are

* Sir James Crichton-Brown.
59

AMONG SCHOOL GARDENS

segregated, the school garden may supply the
place of manual training. Its plants must be
hardy and of simple culture, and its system and
method of work very elastic. Moreover, its pro-
ducts will fit in at the noon luncheon which such
schools frequently provide, for the children can

Crippled Children Farming in the Heart of New York City

supply soup greens and salads, and brighten both
table and schoolroom with their flowers. The
garden work will provide health-giving physical
exercise out of doors that can be regulated to
individual needs.

To still another class of children largely cut
60

DIFFERENT KINDS OF SCHOOL GARDENS

off from normal living, the school garden comes
as a boon. In one large city, a certain number
of plots were divided off for a group of deaf and
dumb boys from a public institution. These lads,
from twelve to fourteen years of age, were given
plots I o X 45 feet. They cultivated the same crops
as boys who had worked one or two years and had
risen to the second and third grades in the garden
work. The asylum boys took their instructions
from the blackboard, found their tools by number
in the toolhouse, and went about their work in
happy silence. An occasional gesture or simple
demonstration from the monitor who supervised
their section was all they needed. Their beds
presented a higher average in appearance than
those of any other class. The class for cripples,
at DeWitt Clinton Park, New York, has already
been alluded to.

Here also may be mentioned gardens maintained
in connection with detention schools, or homes for
morally delinquent children. In the former, the
garden must be conducted on very simple lines,
because the children stay for short periods only.
Sometimes there is a long period of waiting for
suitable conveyance to the home or prison to
which they have been sentenced. During this
time the boys can cultivate the- garden. Those
who have had such an opportunity seem to enjoy
the work and are loath to leave it. One small boy,
so repeatedly up for punishment that it was known
his sentence would be severe, made such a decided

AMONG SCHOOL GARDENS

improvement in manners and showed so strong a
love for the garden work, that, as he was about to
be taken to court, his teacher slipped into his
hand a bit of paper and bade him give it to the
judge. It read "This is my best digger," and bore
the teacher's signature. The judge upon weigh-
ing its mute appeal sentenced the boy, not to the
reformatory among all sorts of criminals, but to a
farm for refractory boys, where the environment
was better and safer than his own home. When
last heard from he was a happy, contented little
fellow striving to deserve the opportunity to live
and work upon a big farm. It was Dr. Hodge of
Clark University, I think, who once said that the
quickest way he knew to keep our prisons and
reformatories empty was to give every boy a piece
of ground, however small, to cultivate for ten
years of his boyhood. Last summer, in Provi-
dence, an incorrigible truant had one of the prize
gardens.

Under gardens for special purposes, one might
mention those in connection with day camps for
tuberculous children, such as the one conducted
during the summer of 1909 in connection with
Bellevue Hospital, New York. Each day some
fifty children were gathered there on the floating
hospital boat moored to the dock, with a gangway
crossing to that part of the hospital yard which
formerly held the dump heap. Thanks to the
interest of the International School Farm League,
the Woman's Auxiliary of the hospital, and the

DIFFERENT KINDS OF SCHOOL GARDENS

authorities of the latter, who gave the use of the
ground, a school garden was laid out with some
fifty little 4x8 beds for vegetables and flowers,
and space for more flowers in the borders. Under
the guidance of a skilful teacher, who had been
trained in the DeWitt Clinton Park garden, the

( '••f'vn'qJit, IQOQ, by Uitdrncood &= U nderwood

Garden at Bellevue Hospital, New York City

children were allowed to cultivate their plots from
half an hour to an hour each day according to their
strength. With such occupation the hours lost
some of their monotony, were happier, and brought
better health and more resources and pleasures,
not only for the present but for future days.
As in the city, school gardens of difi'erent kinds
63

AMONG SCHOOL GARDENS

may be separated or may overlap, or be found
represented in a large model garden, so, in rural
districts, there may be combination or singleness
of plan. The school garden farm emphatically
has its place in manufacturing towns, in many
villages, and in distinctly rural communities. In
the country school, except for the work of the
youngest children, the school farm of the
city will undergo modifications in order to
adapt it to the practical needs of a farming
community. These modifications will be treated
under the discussion of experimentation or trial
gardens.

In the country, school-ground decoration will
not be of the formal kind frequent in cities. Where
the schoolhouse is situated on the roadside, the
garden should aim to become a part of the land-
scape, and the main lines should take their em-
phasis from the natural contour of the land and
its salient features. Whenever the school is in
a village or in the open country, the decorative
scheme of the yard through which the building is
approached should be founded upon the ABC
of landscape gardening; it should avoid a spotty
appearance by,

A. Keeping lawn centers open, hence restful.

B. Planting in masses so as to get large effects;

and by careful arrangement of foreground
and of color and texture of foliage, and
avoiding "legginess" or bare, scraggly
trunks and stems, securing tones of deep-
64

DIFFERENT KINDS OF SCHOOL GARDENS

ening color and harmonious blending in
shape, size and texture of leafage.
C. Avoiding straight Hues which have no place
except in formal gardening. Curves in
paths and roadways should seem to have
a reason for some bend, though it be only a
group of bushes or a tree.
Sometimes the easiest and most tactful way
to secure a school garden in a remote community
is to begin with a topographical or chart garden;
that is, one based on exploration of the surround-
ing country. Such would naturally lead up to
interest in a wild flower garden and to the decora-
tion of the school grounds. Where the school-
house is an ugly building on a small, unsightly
lot, and where farmers have no use for "fads," the
topographical garden may be the only one possible.
It may be well, therefore, to make very clear what
is meant, especially as through such means a very
conservative community may sometimes be led
to take a lively interest not only in improving the
school premises, but in permitting an experiment
in vegetable gardening, which later may prove a
boon to both adults and children.

Most children are glad to tell you where a
unique tree, a noticeable bush, or rare flower is to
be found. With the schoolhouse as a starting
point, map out the way to find it. Gradually
enlarge the drawing to indicate the contour of the
land as the children describe road, hill, swamp or
plain. Mark upon it the noticeable trees or

AMONG SCHOOL GARDENS

houses or even big rocks or boulders. Later fill
in the map so as to suggest the kinds of growth
in the bordering woods or meadows, first the
larger sorts and then the smaller, gathering as you
chart them topics for talks to which a part of one
day each week may be given. At these times, the
teacher should help the children sort out the
knowledge which each has contributed and should
amplify and intensify it for all. Some of the
children will fetch specimens. With a little en-
couragement, they will be willing to bring enough
earth, if necessary, to start a wild flower garden,
like the one at the George Putnam school pre-
viously mentioned as the first in America, or
the 10 X loo foot strip of wild flower garden
at the Cobbett School, Lynn, Mass., where several
hundred shrubs, woody vines, ferns and herbs
are gathered. " From hepatica and bloodroot
to aster and witch hazel they flourish in their
season." Some of the rarer plants were brought
or sent from central New York, from New Hamp-
shire and from distant parts of Massachusetts.

However, one need not in any rural district
go far to find suitable material for fern or wild
flower border, for shrubbery or for trees fit to be
transplanted. There are few plants that, like
the arbutus and fringed gentian, rebel at civiliza-
tion, and many that increase in size and bril-
liancy under cultivation. That they are hardy
and persistent when once rooted, twenty years'
experience in gardening in a city back yard

DIFFERENT KINDS OF SCHOOL GARDENS

has proved.* Dutchman's breeches (dicentra),
hepatica, spring beauty, anemone, jack-in-the-
pulpit, columbine, adder's tongue, asters, golden
rod, violets of several kinds, the rose marsh-
mallow and the wild sunflower all bear trans-
planting and cultivation. Raspberry vines and
blackberry bushes can be utilized for the garden
as well as wild grape, woodbine or Virginia

Rock Garden, Audubon School, Dubuque, Iowa

creeper, bittersweet, clematis, and some of the
other native vines. The hobble bush has beauty
of blossom and leafage. Thorn apple, flowering
dogwood, the elders, wild barberry and bob
sumac provide good shrubbery and several of

* Many of the early spring plants were given warm and sunny
places in winter and early spring, and sheltered by the dense shade
of grape vines in the summer and early fall.

AMONG SCHOOL GARDENS

them furnish rich color and effective outhnes in
the fall and winter. The mountain ash and the
white birch are treasures, and many a seedling
elm, oak or maple is easily found.

In some way establish a bond of interest
between the school and the home growing of
flowers. Start a plant or two in the schoolroom
window.* One teacher in a rural school began
his flower garden with a single fuchsia and in two
or three years had a large family of plants includ-
ing many grandchildren of the original flower.
In fact, that family became so numerous under
judicious slippings that its descendants were
farmed out or given for adoption into the homes
of grateful children who frequently offered slips
of other flowers in return. To ask for a slip is in
many communities a most acceptable compliment
to the successful grower of house plants. Many
of the begonias are easily propagated from pieces
of stem or leaf, and their bright colors and unique
leafage make them universally pleasing. For
outdoor work about the school ask for roots of
lilac, forsythia or yellow flowering willow, flower-
ing almond or flowering quince, bridal wreath or
peonies.

Strive for a clean school yard as you would for
a clean schoolroom, but do not stop there. Beauty

* At the least, one can have that always interesting thing, an
eggshell garden, for it needs but a few seeds, one or two of them
planted in each shell that has been filled with a little rich soil. Later
the seedlings may be transplanted into the school or home garden.

DIFFERENT KINDS OF SCHOOL GARDENS

has its moral effect on a child. It is useless
to expect untarnished morality from children
whose parents provide ramshackle outbuildings
and schools uninteresting and repellent outside
and in, where no playgrounds exist and where no
provision is made to keep investigating minds
safely busy when not occupied with lessons. Clothe
your outbuildings with vines, screen them with
groups of trees, plant your grounds with things
that invite the children to note their growth
or to enjoy their welcome shade. Make school
a delightful place in which to linger because it
has so many charming interests. Childish activity
whether of mind or body needs direction. As in
the childhood of the race morality was an un-
known thing, so too in childhood, some of the evils
that we most deplore are at certain ages largely
the outburst of the investigating spirit spending
itself upon what is near at hand in default of
better, happier things with which to fill otherwise
vacant moments.

No scheme or plan for the decoration of the
rural school can be completed in one season,
but a beginning, pleasing to the eye, is a good
thing, a fertile seed of usefulness.

In rural districts, gardens for experiment or
sample plots for observation are sometimes
possible even on a relatively microscopic scale.
Classroom demonstration of the qualities of soils
and other experiments may illustrate the growth
upon these small plots. The country boy, of

AMONG SCHOOL GARDENS

course, has no use for farming on tiny beds that
to city children seem veritable plantations.
Such baby farming and such instruction in the
first use of tools as would be welcome in the city
would be ridiculous in the country. Possibly
a farmer's boy hates the whole business of farm-

Canadian Boys Spraying Potatoes

ing and longs for the day when he can get
away from it and enjoy life more as he fancies his
city cousins do. His father, perhaps, has no use for
the new school frills, and does not want interference
or intrusion on his home ground. But it may be
feasible to introduce school gardening by suggest-
ing that one boy or group of boys should conduct

DIFFERENT KINDS OF SCHOOL GARDENS

home experiments, as, for instance, with two
apple trees or two patches of potatoes, spraying
the one and not the other and having different
children make occasional visits to compare notes.*
On the other hand, throughout New England
and New York, many schoolhouses have barely
ground enough for the children's recess. Yet
even so, if a few feet of ground could be planted,
for example, to cabbages or potatoes, an experi-
ment could be conducted that would touch the
taxpayer's pocket, dissolve the shell of preju-
dice, and win at least a grudging acknowledg-
ment that there is some merit in school gardening.
Such a plot could be divided into halves and one
part planted with selected eyes from large, well
formed potatoes while the other half should be
seeded with eyes from small or indifferent stock.
One-half of each division should be carefully
sprayed against the ravages of the potato bug.
The other half should be left to care for itself.
The result would show the relative value of
the crops in a most convincing way. Ten
cabbages would demonstrate the ravages of
the common cabbage butterfly and, incident-
ally, of the cabbage root maggot and the flea
beetle in localities where they abound. Four

* See Appendix A, Note 4, for Dr. Robertson's offer of prize
money for wheat and oats grown by the children of Canada, and
notice the bearing of this upon the school garden work.

Where there is a branch of the Grange it is well to ask it, indi-
vidually or collectively, for suggestions and for aid in improving
the school premises. See Appendix A, Note 5.
6 y,

AMONG SCHOOL GARDENS

heads of cabbage should be carefully screened
by one piece of cheese cloth or netting and four
by another, while two may be left uncovered.
Those uncovered will be exposed while young
seedlings and tender plants to attacks of the
beetle and the maggot. Those covered will be pro-

Canby, Minn., Public School Garden and Experimental Farm

tected from the cabbage butterfly; but it is pro-
posed to introduce under one of the screens all
the white butterflies of this variety of pierids
which the children may catch. Later, the riddled
leaves of one group of plants will show the
ravages of the caterpillar hatched from the but-

DIFFERENT KINDS OF SCHOOL GARDENS

terflies' eggs, and the life history of the insect
may be presented as a complete story for the
children.

The Department of Agriculture, Washington,
D. C, furnishes on request, brief, accurate, and
popularly written leaflets on the cabbage butter-
fly (Farmers' Bulletin No. 142) and one on
potato culture (No. 35).* Many other bulletins
on various subjects are issued by the department,
a list of which will be sent upon application.!
State experiment stations also issue free bulletins,
and their experts stand ready to answer any
questions in regard to soils, plant or insect life.
In writing for bulletins, it is well to explain
whether those treating the subject from the
popular or from the scientific side are wanted,
as many stations issue two series. If specimens
are to be sent for identification a note should pre-
cede them. If it be concluded with a word of
thanks for the favor about to be conferred and
followed by a postal card acknowledging the in-
formation when received, the courtesy is appre-
ciated by the busy officials whose letters mount
daily into the hundreds, but who like to know that
their answers have supplied the needed informa-
tion. One man said "Experience teaches us
that we cannot expect this, but we do prefer it."

* See also Potato Culture in Cornell Agricultural College Leaflets
Nos. iq6, 140, and Appendix A, Note 6, telling results of experiments
by Canadian children.

t See Bibliography.

AMONG SCHOOL GARDENS

Courtesy is pretty sure to be remembered and to
bear interest.

In our western states much has been done to
improve rural school conditions. Many counties
and normal schools publish bulletins, some of
them free, others at slight cost, most of which are
very helpful. In the west and south the famous

School Garden, State Normal School, Kearney, Nebraska

corn contests are carried on among clubs of farmers'
boys.* In Nebraska, some 2200 boys have en-
gaged in growing seed corn in prize competition.
One state offered a two weeks' trip to Washing-
ton, D. C, to the boy who won first prize, and

* An interesting account of the work of Dr. Seaman A. Knapp, of
the Bureau of Plant Industry, U. S. Department of Agriculture,
among farmer boys of the south, will be found in The Outlook, Feb.
5,1910, pp. 279-280

DIFFERENT KINDS OF SCHOOL GARDENS

each county added a premium of I150 if tiie
prize winner was found among its own lads.
In Illinois, apart from corn contests better-
ment of rural school conditions and the open-
ing of school gardens have been actively pushed,
especially in Winnebago County under Super-
intendent O. J. Kern. Other counties have
followed the lead, and there has been a steadv
development since 1906 when Marion county had
ten school gardens, ten per cent of the schools in
McHenry county had gardens. Coles county had a
garden of one acre for its graded school, Pike
county had a garden, and Peoria county had
twenty-five in connection with rural schools.*

Many schools in country districts could follow
the custom adopted in the cities of giving out
seeds for the children to plant in their home
gardens, and the teacher's social call might
include supervision of these. Speaking of the
work in Concord Normal School, Athens, W,
Va., where seeds are distributed to the children
to be planted in home plots with supervision and
advice by the head of the department, the prin-
cipal, Mr. C. L. Bemis, writes:

"The reason we are doing our work in this way
is because we have no ground of our own for such
work. I think I should prefer the way we are
doing it, anyway, because it makes the parents
more interested in the work, and all the child
raises is his own. li is necessary, however, for him

*Kern, O.J.: Among Country Schools, p. 82.
75

AMONG SCHOOL GARDENS

to return seeds to the school for those taken away
from the school. He has to carry the plant through
from the seed to the seed.""^

In the south, also, attempts are being made to
interest the farmers' children in flower or vegetable
gardens of their own. Among the central states,
as in Ohio, the work in this line sometimes does
not take the form of technical instruction in
agriculture, but rather of teaching that shall
open the children's eyes to the growing life
about them. Sometimes this is done by reading
from the works of such authors as Riley, Carleton,
Burroughs, who write of the farm, woods and fields ;
sometimes by stories of what men like Burbank
have done, or of the achievements of men like
McCormick who have invented labor saving tools.
In garden and nature study work the object is to
make the country boy realize the natural forces
with which he must deal, the wonderful changes
that go on about him; to lead him to scientific
understanding of his environment, appreciation
of his economic position, and to realization of the
aesthetic enjoyment possible in his surround-
ings.f Such intellectual training will not carry

* The italics are the author's. Following the circuit of the
free traveHng libraries in seven of the southern states, over a hundred
school gardens have been established in connection with the rural
schools.

f " If the farmer as he trudges down the corn rows under the June
sun sees only clods and weeds and corn, he leads an empty and a
barren life. But if he knows of the work of the moisture in air and
soil, of the use of air to root and leaf, of the mysterious chemistry in

DIFFERENT KINDS OF SCHOOL GARDENS

his interests away from tiie farm, as is so often
the case in school hfe now, but will provide
breadth of culture, make rural life fuller and give
a mental alertness useful for all time, whether the
boy remains upon the farm or enters industrial
or professional life.

We of the north Atlantic coast pride ourselves
upon the little red schoolhouse, and the church
steeples that crown our New England hills;
upon the virtue that came out of them and went
into the making of our country. But this is
now largely a matter of historic pride and poetic
sentiment only. Today the New England school-
house is too frequently a blot on our civilization;
a raw, ugly object, spoiling the beauty of the
landscape, indecent in its surroundings; of rude,
unlovely exterior, with only the flag as an inspira-
tion; and with a dismal, uncomfortable interior
for tasks that have but little vital connection
with the life which the children lead. Even in
the largest buildings and with the wider curriculum
of the schools of the small towns there is no place
for the development of the farmer's boy as there is
for the child of the merchant, mechanic, artizan or
artist. There is no outlook toward the agricultural

the sunbeam, of the vital forces in the growing plant, and of the bac-
teria in the soil liberating its elements of fertility; if he sees all the
relation of all these natural forces to his own work; if he can follow
his crop to the market, to foreign lands, to the mill, to the oven and
the table — he realizes that he is no mere toiler." Felmley, David:
Agriculture and Horticulture in the Rural Schools.

AMONG SCHOOL GARDENS

college as toward the college of arts and sciences or
the special professional or trade school. " Manual

What Is!

.^■••II'M//, VtJil//'''' •"••'""iSiZ- .V",///, . 1,,/^, . 'liHA/*.- "I"/*-/^,,. ,||,/a„,.... \,...,\j,,„,, , l/i.flv,„.

From Farmers' BuUelin, No. 218

What Might Be

training has brought the shop and school together
but the farm and school are still far apart."

DIFFERENT KINDS OF SCHOOL GARDENS
No Lime With Lime

(■)

Nothing

(2)

Nitrate of Soda

(3)

Acid Phosphate

(4)

Muriate of Potash

(5)

Complete Fertihzer

•

(6)

Nitrate of Soda and Acid Phos.

(7)

Nitrate of Soda and KCl
(Potassium chlorid or muriate)

(8)

KCl and Acid Phos.

(9)

Street Sweepings

(lO)

Street Sweepings and
Complete Fertilizer

(11)

Cultivated
Unsprayed

every lo Days

Sprayed

(12)

Cultivated '• every other Day
Unsprayed , Sprayed

Experimental Plots. School Garden, Roger Williams Park, Provi-
dence, R. 1. Courtesy of E. K. Thomas.

A Suggested Experimental Plot.

AMONG SCHOOL GARDENS

It is possible to make the school and its sur-
roundings more attractive, to give its dry routine
a closer connection with the children's daily
lives, and through it to add new interests to
the life of field and wood. It does not need a
nurseryman to give a lesson in transplanting vines
or bushes or young trees; to set out a growth of
baby pine or red cedars for a wind-break or
rapidly growing sumac for a screen; to plant
the royal aster or glowing golden rod in a dismal
corner, or train the clematis to cover bare walls
or fences. This much can surely be attempted
and possibly also a small vegetable garden or
trial plots on a larger scale for work with grains
and fertilizers. Experimental plots are better
on the rural school ground especially where land
is cheap, for they can be made to bear directly
upon the economic interests of the community.
Moreover, the cost of land increases, and if its
purchase is deferred from year to year in rural
towns, whole districts become built up and we
soon have the problem of the congested city dis-
trict.

The experimental gardens while intended first
of all for the wholesome, full development of child
nature, frequently aim to be feeders for the agri-
cultural colleges or high schools. They purpose to
deepen in children a love for country life and to
teach them that the farmer's calling offers equal
opportunity with other livelihoods for well rounded
development, pleasant work and successful effort.

CHAPTER 111
SOIL FERTILITY

CHAPTER III
SOIL FERTILITY

"Agriculture is the oldest of the arts and the newest of the sci-
ences."

" Finely divided nutritious soil, with a reasonable supply of water,
is the prime requisite of successful gardening."

"Perfect agriculture is the true foundation of trade and indus-
try,— it is the true foundation of the riches of states."

TO become a successful teacher of school
gardening it is not necessary to be an agri-
culturist, botanist, entomologist, psych-
ologist or chef; but a knowledge of the funda-
mental principles of agriculture is needed, in order
to give plants their right soil, and to protect and
encourage their growth. Elementary botany is
needed to make clear to the child processes of
growth, the adaptation of parts to development,
and the life history of the plant. The teacher
should have sufficient knowledge of entomology to
discriminate between the insects that are benefi-
cial and those that are hurtful to plant life, and
to tell their life story. She should be enough of
a cook to give practical lessons in preparing the
food raised in the garden, and to be on the watch
to introduce the use of new vegetables, especially

AMONG SCHOOL GARDENS

those suitable for salads or greens. Further, the
gardening instructor need not be a trained psy-
chologist, but must know how to present the facts
of the garden so in accord with the laws of asso-
ciation as to call forth the child's quick sense for
analogies, to hold attention, to whet curiosity, and

Children Who Need School Gardens

to grip the memory. Otherwise, the garden will
only teach about growing plants and not develop
perception, judgment and stronger moral fiber.

There are constant illustrations of the fact that
these aims can be attained, and a garden that falls
short of such results is a failure. In Carleton

SOIL FERTILITY

county, Canada, 71 per cent of the children from
schools with gardens passed their high school ex-
aminations, while from schools without gardens
only 49 per cent passed. This was a gain of 22
per cent during the three years the Macdonald
school had been established there. American
teachers also report growth in mental alertness,
in the sense of responsibility for school property
and appearance, and less disorder and naughtiness
from the exuberance of animal spirits that now
find a safe vent in gardening. In the large garden
of the National Cash Register Company the men-
tality of the boys who entered as farmers was
increased 30 per cent, while their morals so im-
proved that city lots, safe at last from their
depredations, rose in value from $200 and «|300,
to $400 and |6oo.

It is fundamental for school gardeners to under-
stand how to create soil fertility and preserve
reasonable moisture. Upon these, more than
upon anything else, successful crops depend.

Soil, "that part of the earth which can be culti-
vated and in which plants can grow", is dis-
integrated rock with more or less decayed and
decaying organic matter — vegetable or animal —
mixed through it. Such matter is called humus,
or sometimes "vegetable soil" because so largely
composed of decaying vegetation. When soils
are divided according to their texture, they
are known as gravel, coarse sand, medium
sand, fine sand, very fine sand, silt, clay and

AMONG SCHOOL GARDENS

"vegetable soil". The most common types of
nearly pure humus are the leaf mold of the woods,
or the rich, soft, friable earth, still showing its
origin, found at the bottom and under the edges
of every old woodpile. From this almost clear
vegetable soil, humus in varying quantities runs
through the different varieties of soil mentioned,
almost entirely disappearing in the coarser sands
and gravel. It is of the utmost importance to
plants because it not only largely furnishes them
food, but through the chemical changes it is con-
stantly undergoing, it helps to break up the more
insoluble mineral constituents of the soil into finer
particles, and thus tends constantly to increase
both the supply of plant food and the area over
which and through which the tiny root fibers can
make their way. Herein lies one of the values of
well-rotted, coarse barnyard manure over the ar-
tificial fertilizers. The manure helps the plants
mechanically as well as chemically.

So important is the humus that its relative
quantities determine the division of soils ac-
cording to their productivity.* A good loam,
an excellent soil for most growth, is approxi-
mately one-third gravel, one-third clay and one-
third humus. To this, land in a farming country

* There is still another division of soils according to their forma-
tion. Their names tell their story, — sedimentary soil, transported
soil, alluvial soil, glacial soil and wind-formed soil. On the leeward
side of arid lands and deserts the soil, carried there by the wind, is
often very fine and fertile.

SOIL FERTILITY

may very likely approach, or readily be made to
approach by the use of ordinary fertilizers. Ac-
cording to soil fertility, a division is made into
(i) sandy soil, containing 80 to 100 per cent of
sand; (2) sandy loam, with 60 to 80 per cent of
sand; (this is light to work, and if plant food be
added, is quicker in results, hence desirable for
truck farming) ; (3) loam with 40 to 60 per cent
of sand, the best all round soil (if air dried, it
will weigh 100 pounds per cubic foot; while aver-
age garden soil weighs about 70 pounds) ; (4)
clay loam with 20 to 40 per cent of sand; and
(5) clay, a heavy soil, likely to be cold, with from
20 per cent of sand to no appreciable amount.

For a number of reasons a light sandy loam
is preferable for children's gardens. It is less
subject to weather conditions than the other soils.
Consequently, it can be worked at almost any
time, as, for example, earlier in the spring and
sooner after showers. The children can handle it
more easily than the colder clay, which tends to
become hard and lumpy, to hold pools of stagnant
water, and to form slippery paths where a tumble
might be disastrous to clothing or to plants. A
light loam will grow and rapidly mature, with
comparatively little special treatment, the plants
usually selected for the children's beds, as well as
nearly all those chosen for the observation or
sample plots. It is the least difficult soil; conse-
quently it is the standard to which one should try
to attain when soils on school garden sites have
7 87

AMONG SCHOOL GARDENS

to be improved. There is still another division of
soils based upon the ease with which they may
be worked. Sandy soils are usually called " light "
because they are easier to work, though in equal
quantities they really weigh more; for a cubic
foot of dry sand weighs i lo pounds and the same
amount of clay about 80 pounds.

Soil, as thus far discussed, is that part of the
earth's surface sometimes called the "top-soil"
in distinction from the "subsoil". As the top-
soil practically holds all the humus, the subsoil
is virtually non-nutritious, disintegrated rock.
Accordingly, when we speak of soil, we usually
mean the top layer, whether a few inches or a
few feet in depth. This depth is all important to
the gardener, for under no circumstances must the
top-soil be destroyed or the subsoil be turned over
upon it. That will be the result if ploughing is
too deep or if, in grading, the top-soil be leveled
off or subsoil be dumped upon it. Between these
two soils there is usually a difference in color and
texture.

A gardener or householder should see that in
the garden or about the home grounds every
particle of the top-soil shall be preserved. So
important is this, that a wise husbandman will
not harrow his land on a windy day lest the wind
carry oflf in clouds of fme dust the food particles
so desirable for his crops. In grading, it is some-
times necessary to skim off the top-soil, level, and
replace it. Where the top layer is thin, and the

SOIL FERTILITY

gardener thrifty, the top-soil of paths, as they are
made or cleaned, is thrown on the beds and made
in some measure to replace soil that has been
worn out or removed by adhering to the roots of
weeds and rubbish. A vegetable garden can be
built up on four inches of top-soil by avoiding deep
root crops and by frequent fertilization to replace
exhausted plant food. A flower garden, carefully
selected for shallow running roots, can be built
upon less depth. But grains require more as they
send their roots from two to four feet deep and
corn requires even six feet. It is therefore essen-
tial to recognize and conserve this top layer of
soil.

Finely divided soil may, as in the case of soils
of reasonable fertility and lightness, be obtained
by a mere mechanical division and multiplication
of particles, by ploughing, harrowing or by deep
spading and raking. If an experienced plough-
man is not to be had, and the area permits,
by all means thoroughly spade it. Land should
be prepared in the fall. It should be ploughed
evenly, deeply and carefully, turning in well rotted
manure that has been spread about three inches
deep. This depth of manure is necessary for the
rich soil demanded in a school garden, where the
same soil may be required to carry successive crops
in one season. Ten cords to the acre is a farm
average, and spreads a layer of one-quarter of an
inch. Market gardens often use from 25 to 30
cords; truck farmers on small areas use still more.

AMONG SCHOOL GARDENS

If fresh, it may be turned in in less quantity and
the land allowed to lie unplanted for some time,
or it may be heaped in piles, wet down and
allowed to decompose for several weeks. In
warm weather such piles should not be left to
breed flies, and they should at all times be mixed
with soil to prevent the escape into the air of
nitrogenous gases from the decomposing nitrogen
compounds. Fresh manure will burn out seeds
and scorch plants.

Land is better with a so-called cover crop of
some sort, often winter rye, which in the spring
may be turned in early as green manure. After
a little opportunity for it to decompose, the ground
may be ploughed or spaded and harrowed (spring
tooth harrow), raked, and so put in order for the
laying out and planting of the garden. Where a
grass sod exists, it must be disc-harrowed in both
directions and cut again and again before being
ploughed in. If the school garden is not decided
upon until spring, the land must be fertilized,*
ploughed or spaded, and allowed to lie open a few
days to air and sun before planting.

In respect to the suitability of a soil for cultiva-

* Commercial fertilizer for school gardens on medium light garden
soil may be figured at i pint per 5 x lo feet plot or 100 pounds per
100 such plots, provided it is an "all round fertilizer". Such a one
would carry 60 per cent bone meal or dust (or 30 pounds superphos-
phate), 20 pounds nitrate of soda, 20 pounds muriate of potash. If
fertilizer of one constituent only is used, bone meal is probably
preferable. Pulverized sheep manure is an all round fertilizer and
safer to use since it will not burn rootlets or many kinds of seed.

SOIL FERTILITY

tion, the simplest test is to compress a handful,
then, opening the fingers, give it a light toss.
The compressed lump should show a light im-
pression of the fingers. When tossed to the
ground, it should fall all apart with the soil
grains adhering in masses too small to be called
lumps. If the soil is sticky, over wet, over heavy
(clayey), coarse, or over light so as to fall in
distinct grains (sandy), it will not answer the
test.

A chemical test of the soil would give all the
elements it contained and their proportions, but
would not determine what portion of them is
available for plant food. To be so available,
there must first of all be a reasonable amount of
water. Root fibres can absorb no food except
as it is in solution in the tiny films of water sur-
rounding each infinitesimal particle that goes
to make up the little masses usually spoken
of as atoms of soil. This film moisture is
known technically as "hygroscopic moisture" to
distinguish it from the capillary water which is
held in the spaces between the soil particles by
capillary attraction, and which is of direct use
to the plant in carrying plant food from place to
place. This capillary water finds its reservoir in
the "ground water", which is the water that has
percolated through the soil until it reaches an
impervious layer, where it gathers to supply our
springs and wells. To return to the hygroscopic
moisture, where there is so small a quantity as

AMONG SCHOOL GARDENS

from three to ten parts of plant food in solution
in one million parts of water, it will be sufficient
to support plant life if it is constantly supplied.
The process by which the food-laden water enters
the root hairs and passes throughout the plant
is called "osmosis". No crop will grow in a
sandy soil holding less than 19 per cent of water,
or in a clayey one with less than 38 per cent. As
the arrangement of the soil particles bears a close
relation to the agricultural value of the land, their
number (varying in soils of different texture) will
indicate in a general way the suitability of the
ground for crops.*

The practical gardener or nurseryman will tell
good soil at a glance, or what poor soil needs to
improve it. A novice may fmd out by the phys-
ical test of earth taken from different parts of the
proposed garden site. It is customary to take
the earth out by driving a tube from six inches to
afoot into the ground. Any kind of a tube, such
as an old apple corer, or better, a boy's blow pipe,
will do. The steps of the process of testing are as
follows: (i) Thoroughly mix the specimens, un-
less they are very unlike (if so, test separately).
Carefully weigh, noting first the weight of the
receptacle (the best kind is an old, shallow tin

* As an illustration, grass and wheat thrive best in soil having
396,900,000,000 grains of clay to the ounce, while corn lands should
have from 170,100,000,000 to 198,450,000,000 grains. Fifteen
hundred pounds of quicklime to the acre will by its decomposing
power {not fertilizing), change wheat or grass lands to corn lands.
Such problems do not confront the ordinary school gardener.

SOIL FERTILITY

pan), and the weight of it and the soil together.
Then, over a low flame so as to avoid scorching
or burning the earth, drive off the moisture it
contains, weighing from time to time until a
constant weight is obtained. Thus you will find
the weight of water and by ratio its percentage in
the soil. (2) Find the percentage of humus by
heating for twenty minutes, sufficiently to burn
out all organic matter as proved by again ob-
taining a constant weight. The difference be-
tween the constant weight of (i) and of (2) will
give the weight of humus and its percentage.
Then (3) test for the gravel and sands by sifting.
The United States government uses a set of brass
sieves. Homemade ones will answer, such as
boxes with their bottoms replaced by fine wire
gauze and by bolting cloth. Gravel will not pass
through a wire mesh of less than two millimeters
diameter. Coarse sand will not go through one
less than one millimeter; medium sand, through
one less than one-half millimeter; and fine sand,
through one less than one-fourth, while very fine
sand will not pass through a sieve of one-twentieth
of a millimeter mesh or less. For separating the
last two, bolting cloth of a mesh known as No.
5 and 13 may be used. The silt and clay are
mingled and will be separated by the fourth step.
(4) The silt and clay are carefully weighed, then
shaken with a quantity of water and boiled for ten
minutes or longer. Then they are allowed to
stand until the heavy silt sinks to the bottom and

AMONG SCHOOL GARDENS

the clay in solution can be decanted oflF. The
water in both is then evaporated and each in
turn weighed to constant weight or to within one
thirty-second of an ounce thereof. Soil grains
of silt run from one-twentieth to one one-hun-
dredth of a millimeter in diameter, and of clay
from one five-thousandth to one ten-thousandth.*
To complete the experiment, the weights of the
gravel and of each of the sand residues should be
found. Each of the varieties found in soil may
be put in a small vial, neatly labeled with name
and percentage, and mounted on a card. If
humus and water of the determined weights be
also placed in vials, the card will be a complete
exhibit of the garden soil in its physical charac-
teristics and approximate supply of plant food.

At first thought, it would seem as if the finer
clay would furnish more plant food. It does hold
more. The soil grains of a cubic foot of coarse
sand will spread over one-fourth an acre, while
those in the same amount of finest clay will
spread over four acres. Consequently, the clay
with its myriads of film surfaces will hold more
water. But clay soils are so compact that water
stagnates in them, cutting off the air that should
go to the roots, tending to sour the ground and to
develop in it mold and fungus disease. On top,

* The experiment can be shortened by a determination of the
water, the humus, all the sands, and the clay and silt in one mass.
Plants will not grow in over 80 per cent of sand, or over 60 per cent
of clay.

SOIL FERTILITY

clay will dry, cake, and crack open when the sur-
face moisture is sunned out.

It is known that plants take from 50 to 90 per
cent of their food, of which three-fourths is carbon,
from the air. This carbon is derived from the car-
bonic acid gas, which is at least 30 per cent greater
in the ground air than in the air we breathe. Where
there is suificient moisture in the ground to allow
a free circulation, there is sure to be both a con-
stant supply of air, of available plant food in the
soil, and also a sufficiently deep passage of sun-
light to keep plants healthy. Accordingly, if the
garden site has too much clay and is soggy, it
may be treated with quicklime to sweeten it* and
break it up into finer particles, or with coarse
manures and turned-in cover crops. Both will
furnish readily available plant food and help to
lighten the soil. Sand and even coal ashes, in
reasonable quantities, leaves, and any organic
matter, if decaying rapidly enough to quickly
disintegrate, may also be used. Furthermore,
paths can be laid to act as surface drains. f

If one has to deal with a too sandy soil, the
need is for an admixture of clay and humus, which
will act, as will also manure, to help conserve soil

* Five to ten barrels per acre. The sourness of soil can be detected
by its turning blue litmus paper red.

t Land where the water stands in pools upon the surface must be
drained by trenching or the equivalent as above; where water is held
too freely the soil must be tiled. Occasionally, a small and perhaps
temporary ditch will carry off the excess of water due to spring rains.

AMONG SCHOOL GARDENS

moisture. In such a soil, the nitrates are apt to
be lacking; they are so soluble they wash away.
Plants must have nitrogen, and their root fibers
will accept it only in the form of nitrates in solu-
tion. One whole class of plants, however, the
leguminosae, of which the pea and bean and the
clover are typical are an exception, for they
possess the unique characteristic of bearing on
their rootlets nodules in which dwell colonies of
bacteria that have the power to take free nitrogen
from the air and convert it into nitrates. It is
well to remember that white beans and sand peas
will grow in the poorest of soils, and that crimson
clover is a good cover crop.* Therefore, if you
have almost to construct a good soil, plant beans,
and later turn them in.f Buckwheat is a good
crop for poor soils. Crops with tap roots help
to keep the soil open.

The prime object is to make a soil that shall be
fertile, fine and friable, — in one word "mellow," —
and further to so control and utilize the natural
water supply in the earth that the chemical com-
pounds in the soil shall be held in suspension
in the water films. This is absolutely essential
where an artificial water supply, by hydrant or
irrigation, is not possible. In aiming for a fine

* The reason for a cover crop is three-fold: to keep soils from
washing away (as down hillsides); to keep their soluble foods from
leaching out; and to add enrichment when used as green fertilizers.

t In localities adapted to them cow-peas are excellent for this
purpose.

SOIL FERTILITY

cultivation of the ground, remember that, at the
rate of making two inches every ten years of the
finest and most fertile top-soil, earthworms or
angle worms are trying to help, and do not despise
them.* Encourage them in the garden and do not
neglect the lesson that these little ploughmen
teach. They digest earth and vegetable food
through their strong, muscular bodies, and
literally grind out a new, rich soil. The large
stretches of velvety turf that one drives over in
approaching Stonehenge in the south of England,
as well as the partially buried stones, testify to
their industry through long centuries.

Exhausted soils teach the old lesson, that you
cannot have your cake and eat it, too. Plants
cannot take large supplies out of the soil without
exhausting it. Therefore if the school garden is to
devour plant supplies, intensive farming, or the
constant supply of fertilizers each season and often
during the season must be practiced, as is done
in truck farming where many successive crops
are repeatedly raised upon the same area.

In order to preserve soil moisture, dry farming
is followed. By it all moisture within about ten
feet of the surface of the ground may be called

* Earthworms in flower pots and window boxes are undesirable
because their burrows allow water to run through the pot or box too
rapidly. Watering the plant with lime water — a handful or 5 inch
lump of quicklime to a 2 quart pitcher of water — will destroy them.
An interesting experiment is to have a quantity of earth where the
work of the worms can be watched; they can be fed with fresh grass,
onion stalks, or even raw meat. See Darwin on Earthworms.

S 97

AMONG SCHOOL GARDENS

into use, and the greater part of that due to
rains or heavy dews can be preserved. Two
simple experiments will determine approximately
the moisture conditions of the proposed garden.
The illustration shows the apparatus, a set of
chimneys in a rack, their lower openings covered
with cheese-cloth. Soils of different textures

Device for Experiments with Soil

are placed to the same height in the chimneys.
The porosity of different soils is shown by the
rapidity with which the same amount of water
poured in each chimney passes through its con-
tents, and their power of absorption by the amount
absorbed in passing. The capillarity of the soil
may be shown by reversing the experiment, and

SOIL FERTILITY

with the ends of the chimneys resting in water,
allowing the water to creep up through the dry
soils. Notice how long it will take water to creep
up through six inches of good soil; how long to
pass down through it.

The modification of the porous quality of soils
is accomplished by the same means used in chang-
ing clay to sandy soils or the reverse. The capil-
larity of soils is modified by these same changes
which make the soils more close or open, as may
be required. But in the best of soils, capillarity
has to be checked so as to keep down near the
roots the ground moisture and to prevent its rise
to the surface and its escape by evaporation. The
simplest means is by dry farming; that is, by a
dust mulch or dust blanket which is a covering
of loose, fine earth from two to three inches deep
over the whole surface of cultivated plots. It
should be frequently renewed over small areas by
the hand plough, or by the use of hoe and rake,
or by the cultivating stick, and always as soon
after rain or even heavy dew as the ground is
workable.* "In general, soil should not contain
more than 60 per cent of its water-holding capacity;
/. e. at least two-fifths of the spaces should be
occupied by air."

Where natural manure cannot be obtained,
resort must be had to commercial fertilizers.
Sometimes, however, street sweepings may be

* Over large tracts of land by the horse or steam plow set to the
required depth with care to avoid cutting roots.

AMONG SCHOOL GARDENS

utilized, especially those gathered immediately
after the snow of winter has gone. They con-
tain some manure mixed with a soft muck, rich
in humus, that has sifted through the snow.
There is more than one successful school garden
whose only available fertilizer was such street
refuse. Some people object to such material as
containing too many weed seeds. Undoubtedly
there are a great many, because no food for horses
can be wholly free from them, and birds also
carry and drop them. Such means are among
nature's methods for spreading green things over
the earth. But cultivation and thorough weeding
during the first six or eight weeks of a school
garden should leave it in such condition as to
require very little attention during the long sum-
mer vacation. The several days' work scattered
through the summer, or a few minutes each day by a
paid attendant will give the garden a presentable
appearance and a fair showing of fall crops when
school begins and harvest days are at hand.

There is a city backyard garden 45 x 100 feet
that twenty years ago, at the death of the master
of the house, had, besides hardy perennials and
a variety of annuals and roses, more than four
hundred species of wild flowers. During a period
of perhaps a dozen years, flowers had been col-
lected from the country round about. The owner
was a well-known scientist and botany was his
side interest. Each plant had been carefully
taken up with a ball of earth so large as not to

100

SOIL FERTILITY

disturb its roots or make it miss its native environ-
ment. It had been transplanted into a shady or
sunny corner of the yard best suited to its nature.
The garden even at the time of the owner's
death was an old one, laid out in quaint box-
bordered beds by an old Scotchman, who so thor-
oughly understood the value of fine soil that it
became a saying that "there wasn't a spoonful of
earth in the whole garden that hadn't been sifted
between grandfather's thumb and forefinger."
For twenty years no attempt was made to re-
place plants that died. Yet, today at least a
dozen species of ferns and probably eighty kinds
of wild plants may be found there.

For forty years it has been a household tradi-
tion that from blossoming of earliest hepatica or
crocus until frost, there should be continual
bloom among its hardy perennials and annuals.
In the many changes during those years, it
has sometimes happened that the beauty of
the garden could be preserved only by a woman's
spading it from end to end. It was never suf-
fered to become a tangle, though sometimes for
consecutive years it has had to go without
fertilizer. It was for many years kept in order
by the labor of a gardener hired for three
days each spring and fall and by the frequent
half-hour periods of weeding that could be given
by one almost an invalid. In its earliest days,
its bloom took prizes at the county fairs, and to-
day, surrounded by city houses, the neighborhood

AMONG SCHOOL GARDENS

children call it Maplewood Park, ask to walk
about it or, with their dolls, to sit upon its two
settles to enjoy its flowers and watch its minia-
ture pond, where grow, and early grew, the first
pink pond lilies in that section of the country.
The Department of Public Works or its good-
natured employes may be induced to give street
sweepings to your garden. They should be piled
or spread with a loose covering of earth, or if
need be of lime. If piled, wet them down a
little and leave them a few days to ripen. The
covering will prevent the breeding of pernicious
flies.* Before school gardens were heard of, we
have occasionally seen boys gathering into home-
made carts street refuse to fertilize their own, or
more likely their father's, small backyard gardens.
Recently, in crowded lower New York, I watched
a small boy with a pointed stick industriously
spearing street manure with a businesslike grav-
ity that boded ill to the urchin who interfered
with him or guyed him. The little collector had
learned that it was filth only as it lay in the
street breeding flies and disease. He had also
learned that, in the wise economy of nature, though
manure was a waste product, it was in itself
full of rich food for the plants in his garden
which if well nourished would grow into nutritious
fruits and bright flowers.

* Some day, show a fly's foot under the microscope or an en-
larged drawing of it. Emphasize the fact that it can carry typhoid
and other disease germs and urge the humane killing of the fly.

102

SOIL FERTILITY

To replace with suitable words as symbols of clear
and true ideas the street gamin's vocabulary is a
part of the school gardener's business. It is not
always to be done by direct teaching. As Doctor
Richard Hodge once said before a mother's
meeting, when talking about teaching religion
to children below the age of adolescence, " You

Hauling Street Sweepings, Louisville, Ky.

are not to teach religion directly to little children
but as a natural and inevitable by-product of
what you do teach and the way you teach."

In villages and rural districts several different
kinds of animal manure may be offered as fer-
tilizers. They vary in fertilizing value,* but

* See Farmers' Bulletin No. 21, Farmyard Manures.
103

AMONG SCHOOL GARDENS

Stress upon their relative heating capacity is the
more important. In passing, perhaps there should
be a word of caution about using any of them
that have been allowed to lie too long exposed to
sun and rain so that their soluble constituents,
especially their nitrates, may have leached into
the ground and their other nitrogen compounds
may have passed into the air in the well-known
ammonia fumes. Neither should any fertilizer
be allowed to become corrupted by mold or spores
of toadstool or mushroom. In one instance that
came under the author's observation, a florist
lost two-fifths of a crop of greenhouse roses, mean-
ing hundreds of dollars in lost sales and cost of coal,
because his son hastily selected a pile of manure
and mixed it with the fall supply of earth for the
greenhouse benches. The boy had been sent to
inspect the manure before purchasing. He had
arrived at dusk of a fall day and visited the heap
with a lantern. His hasty examination of it satis-
fied him. He paid for it, had it carted home, and
had it in the greenhouse before his father discovered
spores of mushrooms. The older man had picked
up his knowledge of flowers. He thought he would
better take the risk than lose time, labor and
money. In the end, it was an expensive decision.
Among manures, that from cows is known as
cold.* Hen manure is very hot and should always

* It contains the largest per cent of water (75.3) while sheep ma-
nure has less (59.5 per cent) and hen, least (56 per cent). These last
two may have the same amount of nitrogen, nearly twice that of cows.

104

SOIL FERTILITY

have a large admixture of earth. The sheep
droppings in the large stock yards are regularly
swept and put on the market in 25 cent boxes or at
I2 per 1 00 pounds. Sometimes they are pulverized.
The nuggets are apt to be fresher. On very
small areas and in window gardening, sheep ma-

" My Garden Did Its Best."

nure is perhaps the easiest, cleanest and best fer-
tilizer to handle. It can be used for indoor gar-
dening, dry, one part to six of soil, or in liquid
form, I pound to 5 gallons of water, and sprayed.
The up-to-date farmer saves all liquid manure,
for it is specially rich in nitrates, as the function
of the kidneys is to carry off all excess of proteid

105

AMONG SCHOOL GARDENS

or nitrogenous matter.* Consequently all liquid
manures must be largely diluted with water, and
all commercial nitrates, either made into a weak
solution or as solids, must be used most sparingly.
No commercial fertilizer should ever touch the
seeds or roots but should be thoroughly mixed
with fine, loose earth.

Seedsmen and nursery men frequently sell an
all round or "general fertilizer." For school
garden experiments of small area, it is better to
buy separate fertilizers, as nitrate of soda for the
nitrates, wood ashes for potash, and ground bone
for the phosphates, mixing them when necessary
and just before use so as not to lose the more
volatile elements. The reason is founded on a
rough rule: feed nitrates for leafage and rapid
growth; potash for root and fruit crops, intensity
of color and increase in bloom; and phosphates
for early maturity and plump seeds. Another
rule is that commercial fertilizers, like tonics,
give quicker results, while natural fertilizers give
a slow, steady food supply throughout the season,
and by their physical properties improve the
soil for all time.f

Plants often profit by a little extra feeding at
the start. Sickly plants and some others need a

* It is also rich in potash. It contains from three to five times as
much nitrate and about nine times as much potash as the soUd
manures which hold by far the larger percentage of phosphates.

f Fertilizers may be rushed on for leafage crops and these rotated
with seed or grain crops the following year and these again by clover

I 06

SOIL FERTILITY

special diet. The two classes of fertilizers are
often combined by using the natural fertilizer as
the general food for the whole garden, and by
adding in the row a small amount of special fer-
tilizer; for example, a pint of ground bone or
bone meal to a ten-foot row of peas, is mixed
thoroughly in the bottom of a four-inch trench and
covered with a light layer of soil, before the peas
are planted, so as to give them a good start.

Of some seventeen elements required for plant
structure, about half a dozen are all-important.
For the needed small quantities of the others,
the plant may be left to shift for itself. Of the
important ones, oxygen comes from the air, from
water and from chemical disintegration. From
the chemical separation of water comes hydrogen.
Nitrogen has been accounted for. From 50 to
90 per cent of the food of plants is taken from the
air, and three-fourths of that percentage is carbon
derived from carbonic acid gas. Potash and
phosphates come from decaying animal and
vegetable matter and from the fertilizers used.
Lime, iron, sulphur and magnesium are indispens-
able.* They usually, however, exist in sufficient
quantities in the soil, and are found in some
measure in the fertilizers discussed.

or leguminous plants. Never use nitrate upon these nitrate making
factories.

Commercial fertilizers are better used on clay soils for they are
not as liable to be washed out and the chemical action they set up
disintegrates the clay particles.

* Osterhout, W. J. V.: Experiments With Plants, p. 139.
107

AMONG SCHOOL GARDENS

One who understands the nature of the soil to be
dealt with, and knows how to improve it can fol-
low intelligently the cultural directions on nearly
all seed packets or in catalogues of plants.*
No theoretical knowledge, no word knowledge, can
ever take the place of practical experience, but it
can materially help to prevent gross errors. First,
last and always, give your plants plenty of soluble
food and keep their feet dry. Very few love
any approach to a swamp. Give them good
soil conditions. "Tillage," or cultivation, "is
the stirring of the soil in order to improve it."
Thorough tillage, whether with plough, hoe,
or cultivating stick, means to kill weeds; to
pulverize the soil that it may be open and uni-
form in texture; to create air spaces; to widen
pasturage for roots; to conserve moisture; to
admit sunlight and warmth; to admit rain, with
its solvent foods; to cause organic matter to be-
come humus; to turn over soil that its bacteria
may better work upon it; in short, to create
finely divided, nutritious, soluble soil particles.

* See list of plants for nearly all soil conditions and all sorts of
places, in Appendix A, Note 7.

108

CHAPTER IV
COST OF EQUIPMENT

"A school yard planted by a gardener is good if the work can be
done in no other way, but the one that best serves its educational
value is planted by children, no matter how small the ground or how
crude the result. It is in such a garden that moral teaching is ac-
complished."— B. T. Galloway.

A small boy in Massachusetts wrote " I took an axe and made the
earth fine and with the coal shovel turned all over and over until it
was ail mixed together." — Letter to the head of the Children's
Department, James Vick's Sons.

"The children cleared up the rubbish and tackled the soil with
any old thing they could lay hands on."

THE purpose of this chapter is to give data
for a fair estimate when computing an
appropriation for a garden; to suggest a
possible minimum cost; and to urge beginning
a garden on even less where there is a courage-
ous, intelligent enthusiast to watch over it. The
chapter will also include some consideration of the
use and care of tools.

The illustrations of an eighteen cent flower
garden show that seeds need not cost much.
Government seeds sent upon school requests have
been spoken of, but whether the garden is in con-
nection with a school or not, it is better not to
depend upon such aid entirely; better to have the

1 1 1

AMONG SCHOOL GARDENS

national government associated in the child's mind
as a willing helper in garden work rather than as a
lavish provider. Whether seeds shall be provided
free or bought by the children, is often a question
of local circumstances. Assuming the old maxim
"pay as you go" to be a very sound one, the

-— -

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1 :

1 — t — ,

t r -n- 1 '
c 1 ' t

If; 1

' ' ! I 1
•11"?

1 i ! i 1
' 1 ' ' '

- 3 -
-S -

' 4

"ill'

--H. -1

Chart of an Eighteen Cent Garden

1. Marigolds

2. Bachelor's Buttons

3. Four o' Clocks

4. Asters

F. Beans

A. Phlox

5. China Pinks

B. Balsam

6. Poppies

7. Zinnias

C. Lettuce

D. Red Beet

E. Peas
G. Carrots

penny packet, now put up by a number of garden
associations and several of the leading seedsmen,
makes both the flower and vegetable seeds for a

<r"

b-
Z

u
z

UJ
UJ
H

COST OF EQUIPMENT

small garden come within an eager child's dime.
His enthusiasm, however, should be backed by
intelligent supervision and training. Enthusiasm
alone or even with cash will not bring sure re-
sults. The teacher must have definite knowl-
edge of the needs of plants. In its far reaching
results, it is almost a crime to make a child
work hard only to have him disappointed because
of some fault or error in the garden work which the
teacher should have known how to avoid.

Let us then consider some estimates of what a
year's work costs. Two expenses loom up in con-
nection with the yearly maintenance of every gar-
den. They are those for the preparation of the
ground, including, of course, plowing and fertiliz-
ing, and those for salaries. The cost of seeds, plants
and other garden supplies (exclusive of tools) and
of the material for nature study, need not be great.
Even rental of land is usually not much more
than enough to cover its taxes. There remain, as large
initial expenses, tools, fencing, some kind of shelter
under which to hold classes and conduct work, and
the installing of a water supply. Locality, con-
dition of soil, size of garden and the measure of its
equipment* will all enter into an estimate of its
cost. Yet one can perhaps gain some idea to base
an estimate upon from the following data.

* Germany suggests that the size of a garden to serve the purpose
of instruction be ^ acre: if to include playground, at least J acre.

A garden of | acre (5445 sq. feet) large enough for a country school,
may contain perennial and annual flower borders, class, sample and
experimental plots, kitchen garden, forest and fruit nursery.

i'3

AMONG SCHOOL GARDENS

Including every expense of the garden and al-
lowing for five hundred individual plots, lo x i6
feet, together with a fair number of sample plots,
on a tract of three and one-half acres, one of the
finest gardens in the country asks from the friends
who support it I5.00 per child per season of five
months and estimates that the crop from each
garden will return I5.00 or more to each gardener
in vegetables alone. This garden is in New York
state and its staff consists of a superintendent,
two assistant teachers, a laborer and two assist-
ants whose duty it is to give out the daily record
books to the children, sometimes tools, such
seeds as they may need, to keep the attendance,
and sundry like duties. The National Cash
Register Company when its boys' beds were 10
X 170 feet (now they are 10 x 100) figured that for
70 boys the expenses of keeping the land in order,
hiring a gardener and making some display of
flowers apart from the children's beds was $3500
a year.

A number of the estimates that follow are for
gardens already established and used during the
spring term of the school year and for perhaps
several weeks in the fall. They do not include
the initial cost of tools, or even fertilizer.* Toledo,
Ohio, aside from the question of salary, figures that
a school garden of one acre in extent with 300 indi-
vidual plots (2x5 feet or 5 X 6 feet) can be run
for six months each year at an annual cost of $25.

* Government seeds may be used in some cases.
114

COST OF EQUIPMENT

The same amount, of which the Canadian govern-
ment grants |20, is estimated to cover the running
expenses of one (and probably most) of the
Macdonald school gardens, having 126 individual
plots, 5 X 10 feet, where the principal of the
school and the regular teachers conduct the garden
work.* Here in the summer, a janitor or laborer
has general charge of the garden in connection
with his other duties, in South Dakota an
estimate of $40 per year, exclusive of salary, is
given for a garden where work is done on from
35 to 40 group plots of 10 X 20 feet each. Texas,
for gardens of from one to two acres in connection
with some of her rural schools, figures the annual
cost of maintenance at from |io to I25. Some
other estimates, such as one from New Jersey,
figure the cost per plot as 30 cents per season and
its return as 60 cents. At this rate 350 plots in
a half acre lot would make the garden total
I105 for the season. Another garden in the same
state figures its running expenses for 38 class plots
as $5.00 each per season, while an Indiana esti-
mate was 1 1. 00 per plot having six square feet.
A Connecticut town supports a garden 45 x 80
feet, under volunteer teachers, for I30 per year,
giving 20 boys beds large enough to return crops
of approximately $4.00 each in value. Stockton,
California, in a garden 60 x 1 50 feet with beds
3x12 feet for children of the first, second and

* Fertilizer provided by College of Agriculture. Many of the seeds
are grown by the children.

115

AMONG SCHOOL GARDENS

third grades, estimates the cost at 37I cents
per plot. A garden of an acre on the fertile soil
of one of our rich western states, which required
considerable grading and which paid its instructor
1 1 00 for the vacation work, furnished eight class
plots and 90 individual ones at a cost of about
I500 for the first year. Its little farms returned
from I2.50 to $5.00 each. Another garden in the
same state having 400 individual plots, 4x10 feet,
and 25 class or sample plots, costs I475 per season,
including its proportional part of the salary paid
for a regular instructor in agriculture, and also
gives from each little plot over $5.00 worth of
vegetables. In the less fertile east, I650 covered
the cost of 75 plots, 10 X 20 feet, yielding in the
second year average crops of $4.00 value.

Here is a detailed estimate for the first year of a
school garden, one section of which replaced a
rubbish heap on an unsightly vacant lot in a good
residential section of an Ohio town. The work
required from the instructors was during the hours
from 8 to 10 a. m.; and that from children in each
division was two to four hours per week. A fee
of 25 cents was charged each child. The work
was started under the direction of a special teacher,
assisted by the grade teachers. It was continued
through vacation under the direction of the super-
intendent assisted by the janitor, and completed
under the direction of the building principal.
The garden was divided into four sections: East
(individual beds 5 x 24 feet) ; West (7 x 23 feet) ;

1 16

COST OF EQUIPMENT

North (7 X 45 feet.) ; South (9 x 42 feet) . Of these,

the East contained 14 plots, the West 12, the

North 12, and the South lo, making a total of 48

beds. The average age of the children was eleven

years. Premiums, known as the St. Clair prizes,

were given. The net cost of the garden was as

follows:

Plowing I15.00

Taxes or rental 30.00

Seeds and plants 37-oo

Wear and tear on tools. . . . 5.00 (Estimated)
incidentals, such as re-
moval of trash 4.00

I9 1 .00

Deducting fees paid by the little gardeners, |i i .75,
made a net total of I79.25, or a cost per pupil of
I1.65.*

* The average per garden, deducting the St. Clair prizes, was
I55.05. The average for the pupils in vegetables raised was $4.64.
The number of pupils raising less than |io from the garden was nine.
These results itemized are as follows:

Vegetables
sold

St. Clair
prices

Vegetables
used at home

Winter
stored

West Garden $70.13

South Garden. .. . 86.29

East Garden 27.96

North Garden. . . . 63.81

$44.66

69-49
20.01

39-34

I4-75
9.25
1.50

10.00

I14-75
5.10

3-45
5.91

$5-97
2-45
3.00
8.56

Total I248.19

This garden estimate omits salaries and the cost of tools and
fertilizer. An estimate of the latter might be $1.50 per load in most
places or 100 pounds commercial fertilizer per 100 plots 5x10 feet.
In many cases street sweepings are furnished by the city.

117

AMONG SCHOOL GARDENS

Sometimes, some one interested in school gar-
dens, having faith that a first year garden will
establish itself as a precedent and win friends to
support it with a salaried teacher in succeeding
years, can be found to give his or her services as
instructor for several days each week. Again,
the salary can be divided among several communi-
ties, as is now done where a teacher of drawing, or
manual training, takes charge of the work in a
group of schools or in those of neighboring towns.
Frequently, where school gardens are started in
connection with schools, the question of salary is
disposed of because the work is divided among the
teachers. So, too, the need sometimes for a man's
strength about the garden can be met by employ-
ing the janitor, or hiring a laborer, or utilizing the
volunteer help of the larger boys instead of paying
a gardener the average salary of |6o per month.

The question of salaries aside, the next most
costly items are fencing, preparation of ground,
and tools. Where it is necessary to guard against
depredation, a fence of some sort, an open fence,
is necessary. It should be open, whatever its
material, so that the garden can easily be seen and
may become an object of interest to the com-
munity. A hedge is preferable where it will
serve, and is cheaper than an iron fence. While
the hedge is growing, there may be guard rails
to protect both it and the garden. If these are
angular instead of flat or round, the hedge will
be safer from the swinging feet or the falls of those

ii8

COST OF EQUIPMENT

who might find the rail a good perch or resting
place. There are many low priced wire fences on
the market. The cheapest that I have seen and
oneThat served well its purpose was a 5 foot woven

Fourth Grade Boys Fixing Fence, Normal School,
Louisville, Ky.

wire fence (close mesh for a foot from the ground)
stretched on round posts at the corners and gate-
way and on half sawed posts between. It cost
6 cents per running foot. This fence is not orna-

1 19

AMONG SCHOOL GARDENS

mental but it will last for a term of years and has
the advantage that it can be set wholly or in part
by boy labor. All wire fences when festooned
with vines will lose much of their ugliness. A
serviceable light iron fence or one with iron posts
is desirable and is an excellent investment when
the garden site is sure to be permanent. Where
feasible, let the fence be low enough for the plants
to be easily seen, or even have a top bar for
people to comfortably lean upon while they watch
the garden.

In regard to tools, in some localities children
can be asked at a pinch to furnish them from the
home supply, but this is usually unsatisfactory all
round. Good tools are expensive, and they must
be good whatever their size. For many gardens
it is better to get what is known in the trade as
ladies' size. They have shorter and slimmer
handles which make them easier for the children
to grasp. They are not altogether desirable where
big boys are working large size plots, but for the
average child from the sixth grade to the sixteenth
year cultivating a plot from 4x8 feet to lo x 60
feet or even 10 x 100 feet they will do admirably.
There should be a few larger tools for general use.

The ideal outfit is a hoe, rake, weeder and line
for each child, bearing his own number or name
and having its own place in toolhouse or shed or
nearby barn or cellar. (Every garden should
have its toolhouse even if it be only a chest or
box.) Hoe and rake should have five-foot handles

120

COST OF EQUIPMENT

which it is well to mark off by painted lines into
feet of which the first shall be divided into halves
and quarters.* A longer handle in unskilful
hands is likely to ram one's neighbor. Children's
tools, except for very little children (and then
only if of good make), are valueless. Nor is the
combination rake and hoe to be recommended
except in handling very light soils. It is too
liable to bend or break. Hoes of the heel shape
or "half-moon" type are better because they lack
sharp, straight edges; with them children are less
likely to cut outlying roots or sprawling vines.
Rakes should not be over a foot wide; better ten
inches with eight or ten teeth so as to move easily
between rows planted but a foot apart.

There is one rule which should be vigilantly
and eternally and omnipresently enforced: No
child should be allowed to lay down hoe or rake
except with its edges or teeth resting on the ground.
A first lesson in the handling of tools should en-
force this rule, it should be shown how easily
the handle of either, if accidentally stepped upon,
when the tool is not face down to earth, springs
up to strike any one nearby — and not always the
careless person. It should also be drilled into
the children that to step on the sharp edge of the
hoe or teeth of the rake is often a painful thing
if one wears shoes; that it is a dangerous and some-

* It is better to burn in the marks, wliich may be done by ringing
them with several strands of string soaked in kerosene and setting
them afire.

AMONG SCHOOL GARDENS

times a fatal thing if one is barefoot. One little
gardener has paid for her carelessness with her
life.

Weeders may be had at from 15 to 25 cents.
The first are often of cast iron and apt to break.
The small weeding forks are excellent and for little
children on tiny plots are a sort of universal tool.
Garden lines can be made by the boys. This set
of tools, hoe, rake, line and weeder, will cost at re-
tail from |i.oo to|i.25 for each child. One might
also figure on a watering can (preferably with the
long spout and rose spray*) for each 10 children
where there are 50 or more working together, for all
would not need to use them at the same time, and
the garden hose could help out. Then, in addi-
tion, except for the grand days of preparation in
the spring and fall (when more could be borrowed)
only a few spades would be needed, one or two
spading forks and shovels, an occasional wheel-
barrow and a garden tape of steel. Other tools
and the use of those mentioned may be considered
later. After a garden is once equipped, the ex-
pense for repair of tools is slight, and both repair
and methods of sharpening should be a part of
the instruction among older children.

To make an estimate, the surest way is to figure
on the cost apart from the instructor's salary. One
might say, " I want so much money to start a gar-
den, and also, if we have paid teachers, a reasonable
salary such as any fairminded man or assembly of

* See illustration opposite page 231.

COST OF EQUIPMENT

men and women would gladly give for good work."
Workers differ, so does the amount of labor, as
well as the knowledge required of them. Here
is what one writer says of a supervisor:

"She should be a woman that is capable of
supervising and directing the work of preparing
the ground, laying out the plots and erecting
buildings, as she will necessarily have to plan
the laying out of the garden and direct both chil-
dren and work. Some knowledge of surveying,
plowing and drafting is indispensable. Upon
the supervisor also falls the duty of engaging
workers and the responsibilities of overseeing
each step. She must make estimates and pur-
chases of seeds and plants, and the whole govern-
ment of the practical gardening is to be planned by
her. In addition to this, she should give daily
nature study talks which must be adapted to the
varying ages of the children. As harvesting
progresses, accurate records of produce per child,
the attendance of said child, and the effect of
work upon his physical, mental and moral being
must be registered. All of these steps are worth
while because gardening (in this country) is yet
in its infancy, and because statistics must be
obtained with which to convince those who are
as yet unwilling to embrace the idea of its merit.
Such individual records kept for 250 children
to be afterward added, balanced, and the average
found, more than fill the teacher's time during
the hours in which the children are at school.

123

AMONG SCHOOL GARDENS

Many interruptions to this work occur, in the
form of visiting classes, to which the supervisor
explains the work of the garden. To have seeds
planted and brought to maturity means an early
start to the garden. The proper period for a
garden is from May 15 to October 15 in latitudes
from Washington to Maine. The work of the
supervisor, however, begins the first of May or
even in April, with the original planning and
plotting and extends until about a week after the
garden closes. It is only finished when a record
of each day of the summer's work has been com-
pleted."*

Such a teacher may get I150 per month or
more. She should get at least I125 and probably
cannot be obtained for less than |ioo. If she
has charge of a system of gardens, that is another
matter. Such a one does not come under con-
sideration in the cost of starting the first school
garden in a locality. f Principals in charge of a
garden or under a general supervisor, receive in
one city $420, their work during April, May, June
and September being from 9 to 12 and 2 to 5.30,
while in July and August it is from 8 a. m. to 12.30
p. M. The season is from April 7 to October 7.
Their assistants must be graduates of normal
schools or colleges of good standing. They work
from 3.30 to 5.30 during April, May, June and

* Bennett, H. C: School Gardening in Great Cities,
f Supervisors of well organized systems of gardens receive from
$1 200 to $2000 for eight to ten months' service.

124

COST OF EQUIPMENT

September, and from 8 to 12.30 during July and
August, for I240 per season. Another city pays
each principal 1 18 for a period (i. e. three hours'
work) for five days each week during the season,
and the assistants |i2. In several cities, where
few hours are required, a rate of 75 cents per
hour is paid or from I2.25 to I4.00 per day.
Assistant teachers for all-day work average I65
and I75 per month.

"The assistant teacher, as a rule, is needed only
in the afternoons and on Saturdays during spring
and fall when the children attend only after school
hours; but during the vacation period, she may
be needed for half the day or the entire day, ac-
cording to the custom of keeping the garden
open."*

Evidently the matter of salary is a local one,
which each community must adjust to its own
needs or purse. Similarly, the question of a
gardener or laborer is local; undoubtedly there
should be one or the other in every large garden.

"Trained teachers are more valuable than
agriculturists without knowledge of pedagogical
methods. Teachers not versed in agriculture may
be supplemented by a gardener; if, however,
teachers do understand gardening, a laborer may
take the gardener's place. This man occupies

* An ideal ratio of assistants to children would be one for every
seven or at most ten. Twenty or 25 children is the utmost that
should be in any one class or division. England forbids her teachers
in gardening to have more than 14 children in a class.
10 125

AMONG SCHOOL GARDENS

an important position in the work; he suppHes
the place of a janitor and assists the children in
any work that is too heavy for them, such as
working up earth with a pickaxe or managing a
50 foot hose. During the early summer and fall
when the children are at school most of the day,
he acts as a watchman; and during this time,
when weeds grow rapidly and the children's hours
of work are few, he also assists in keeping the
garden clean."

Such a man may be a necessity or a luxury;
if the first, count him in your estimate; if a luxury,
count him out as far as possible and enlist in the
service the helpful, knightly element in your big
boys.

If the garden must be started on a small
appropriation from the school or park officials
or on voluntary subscriptions, and expenses must
be cut down to the lowest sum, cut them down in
a dignified way; no cut rates or wages, whether
for laborer or teacher. Moreover, the reduction
would probably have to come on the teacher's
salary, because of a lack of appreciation of the
required services, and because of union regulation
of laborers' wages. "Anybody can dig in a
garden" seems to be the popular sentiment.
Anybody can dig, but anyone cannot grow
plants, nor still more, develop children. No
cut rates, but all the voluntary service — if of a
good intelligent order — that can be secured. But
let the matter be distinctly understood whether

126

COST OF EQUIPMENT

the service is wholly a freewill offering or part is
paid and the other given for love of the cause and
faith in its demonstrable value. In many places,
gardens must start with just such labor. Hence,
the main purpose of this chapter is to try to show
with how little a school garden can be started;
how like the proverbial grain of mustard seed it
is in its possibilities of growth and virtue.

Hazelwood Park School Garden, Pittsburgh, Pa.

In computing the cost of a given garden, make
a good, sound estimate, one that will cover all
details and leave a margin for the unexpected;
but if occasion requires, count in the least possible
material as necessary, and count out all that
could be arranged for, or for which substitution,
however inexpensive or humble, could be made.

127

AMONG SCHOOL GARDENS

For example, land rental might not have to be
considered or might be limited to paying taxes
where outright loans of the ground could not be
obtained. In some localities fertilizer, one of the
big expenses, might be contributed by one or
more persons as a gift or in preference to a cash
contribution. A fence, that other considerable
item, may already exist. There must be one.
Without it, respect for property and honesty will
be difficult to teach; impossible if outsiders be-
come vandals. In a crowded city, in a tiny 15x8
foot garden, the boys made their own picket fence
for the " Farmers' Club," so determined were those
school children at least to make a beginning. If a
fence already exists and is of solid boards, rip out
some of them so that the public may feel that they
are invited to watch the children.

Again with reference to expenses, the needed
shelter and toolhouse* may be already provided.

* "One of the most useful accessories to the school garden is the
garden shed, which is useful for storing tools and produce, and for
carrying on work not suited to the classroom, such as preparing
pickets and labels, analyzing soils, assorting seeds, arranging plants,
etc. The average cost of the garden sheds (in Canada) is about $75.
A popular plan is one 10 x 20 feet with an extension on one side about
5 feet wide, and finished as a greenhouse. This obviates the necessity
of having special hot-beds. The garden tools are disposed along the
walls of the shed in places numbered to accord with the numbering
of the pupils' plots. Along one side of each shed is a bench or table
of plain boards, about 18 inches wide, running close to the wall,
along which are several small windows giving abundant light to
pupils engaged in practical work." — Cowley, R. H.: The Macdonald
School Gardens.

128

COST OF EQUIPMENT

Moreover, a large piano box costing |i.oo can be
made weatherproof and serviceable for the keeping
of tools. A $25 tent can be made to take the
place of the more costly portable house. A
shelter from the hot sunshine may be a canopy
of quickly growing vines.* If a tent is used, it
must have a fly or it will be worse than a gridiron
in hot weather, and give little protection in storms.

Section of Wooden Pergola

One can, perhaps, get along without a water
supply, but sometimes a 4-inch hydrant and hose
is almost a necessity. Then again, in many places
the water supply is furnished. Tools can be les-
sened in number by giving different groups of
children one kind of tool to use at a time, and ex-

* Posts driven into the ground and connected by wires to support
quick growing vines will form the sides of a shelter that might have
a double canvas and rainproof top.

129

AMONG SCHOOL GARDENS

changing for different ones as their need requires.
There may also be some improvised substitutions.
Children enjoy making things for real use. If
some of the suggested substitutes seem inadequate,
try them. Recall how much more enjoyment and
benefit there is in the homemade toy or improvised
tool provided it does its work well. Moreover,
in several well known cases school gardens that
nearly failed the first year, when too much of
the preparatory work was done for the children,
flourished the second year when the same children
felt the gardens to be their very own because they
had done all the work upon them that they pos-
sibly could. Here is another opportunity to
lessen the expense of hired labor, particularly in
clearing up.* A half dozen children by the use of
ropes and crowbar, if wisely directed, can safely
accomplish much clearing that might seem to
require adult strength. Equipment can be di-
vided into fundamental and accessory, limiting
the latter according to the amount of nature
study, housewifery and elementary science that
is to be undertaken in connection with the garden.
By substitution, also, one can lessen somewhat
the cost of both the fundamental and accessory
material.

Let us consider a garden for fifty children. In
the first place, if one person is to supervise them,

* Sort the rubbish into piles of different materials. The stones and
bricks and rocks may be handy for paving purposes; old wood for
carpentry; old cans and bottles for plants and experiments.

130

COST OF EQUIPMENT

the pupils should be divided into at least three
sections for class or special work. As soon as
convenient, they should be placed under some
system of monitors or helpers or sub-instructors
drawn from among themselves.* This will lighten
the general daily work of the garden.

It may be well to insist that such discipline
as is necessary should be almost military. The
children like it better, provided the spirit is not
that of the martinet, but one of mutual help-
fulness expressed in firm, gentle, unyielding yet
sympathetic manner. There should be no cod-
dling, no pets, no excessive demands upon the
child, no injustice through confusing the adult's
and the child's point of view. There should be
as little of the school atmosphere as possible, but
prompt obedience coupled with the utmost pos-
sible liberty.

In a first-year garden the individual beds would
probably be 4 x 8 feet or 5x10 feet, with none over
10x20 feet. An arrangement could be made to
accommodate children of varying ages, and in the
following year, the garden could be graded either
from the standpoint of size of plot or from that
of quantity or quality of work. The amount of
fundamental equipment necessary would include
first of all, spades, rakes, hoes, weeders, watering
cans, and the few other tools already named.
An estimate of cost of the most essential tools
might read:

* See report of class secretary, page 45

AMONG SCHOOL GARDENS

I dozen rakes (8 or lo inches wide,

to use easily between rows one

foot apart, and with 8 or lo

teeth of strong malleable iron) . $4.80 per doz.
I dozen hoes (Harper's half moon

4 or 5 inch blade) 4.75

I dozen weeders — at 25 cents each

for substantial steel ones 2.50 " "

(weeding irons can be got at 1 5

cents each)
3 watering cans — at I2.00 each 6.00

(Punch the rose holes outward
to prevent clogging)
3 spades with foot guards at |i2 per

doz 3.00

Total I21.05

Several of the best gardens allow 50 of the first
three tools named to 300 boys (that is, one to six)
and find them ample for daily use even where there
is an excellent average attendance. This ratio
of one to six gives a supply of 1 50 of these tools
and there should be in addition some dozen spades,
two dozen watering cans and a few other imple-
ments to draw upon. Another garden has 40 sets
of tools with sometimes 60 boys present. Com-
puting in the above ratios for the smaller garden
of 50 children, would leave only about a tool apiece
should every member be present at the same hour.
But it gives a full set of three tools each to every
child present, if the children be divided into work-

132

COST OF EQUIPMENT

ing groups of twelve. Work can be arranged so
that one group can use the weeder while another
has the rake and still another the hoe. But for

Good Tools

comfort, the smaller garden would actually need a
proportionately larger number of tools,* so that

* The Canadian estimate is "for each two children in average
attendance, a rake, hoe, and hand weeder; for each six a spade or

133

AMONG SCHOOL GARDENS

it would be better to spend more for these first
tools, adding two spades, a half dozen each of
rakes and hoes, and several weeders. To con-
tinue the estimate:

Low Fuller

Estimate Estimate

For rakes, hoes, weeders . . . .I21.05 I30.33

Wheelbarrow, Boys' size 3.00 3.00

One steel tape, 75 ft 4.75 4.75

25 feet rubber hose 3.00 3.50

50 note books at 2 cents each i.oo i.oo
Flag, rollbook, blackboard,
hammer, saw, nails, sun-
dries 10.00 10.00

50 membership cards 1.50 1.50

Stake and labels 2.00 2.00

3 forks, J dozen trowels,
which are $5.00 a doz... 5.50 5.50

Seeds and plants 20.00 25.00

Cord, raffia, etc. (cotton
awning line costs 30 cents
per lb. 10 lbs. will make
50 garden lines) 3.00 3.00

74.80 89.58

To these must be added as accessory expense
at least $5.00 for pans, glass, paper mounts, pins,
etc. if any experimental work or insect work is

fork;" and two shovels, three transplanting trowels, 100 foot line and
reel, 1 66 foot tape line, a wheelbarrow and lawn mower, would make the
cost of tools for a group of thirty children where they work two on a
plot (senior and junior) about $30. Cost of seeds about $4. For
quantity, see Appendix A, Note 8.

134

COST OF EQUIPMENT

to be undertaken. Further accessory equipment
may be obtained by having homemade trellises,
root cages, racks for soil testing, flats, homemade
barometer, rain gauge, sand boxes for planting
(or for the entertainment of the tiny child visitors
whom the older "little mothers" sometimes have
to bring), rubbish boxes, bed markers, butterfly
nets, and numerous other sub-
stitutes that save expense.

With small children, in their
first year work, or on plots not
over 8 X 10 feet, the weeders
(also the hoe and rake) can be
supplanted in part, or wholly,
by the cultivating stick. In the
remote districts of Italy, a plow
is still frequently only a tough
forked limb of a tree pushed or cultivating Stick
pulled through the ground. A
cultivating stick is merely a piece of soft wood, or
lath, one-fourth of an inch thick, one and a half
inches wide, and 1 2 inches long, shaped to the hand
and pointed at one end, which may be hardened
by charring it. Held in the hand like a dagger and
thrust into the dry, hard earth until the fingers
strike the soil, it cuts each stroke to a uniform
depth of between two and three inches and leaves
in its wake a fine mulch.* In untrained hands,
it is less likely than hoe or weeder to cut or damage

* For this useful substitute, I am indebted to Mr. Henry G.
Parsons.

AMONG SCHOOL GARDENS

the plants, and it is as effective as either in loosen-
ing the soil and uprooting the weeds. The child
at the end of the short cultivating stick is much
nearer to the ground than when using the long-
handled tool. He can and will at close range take
far more interest in noticing color and form and the
differences in both whether in weeds or in plants;
for example, the similarities and dissimilarities
between the weed purslane and its cousin the
flowering portulaca; between the grass blade and
the blade of corn; between the redweed and the
tiny seedlings of the beet.

The wheelbarrow is for general and large use.
For daily weeding in the individual plot, each
child, or every two children, may have a basket,
or better, a small wooden box (or a soap box cut
in two) with hoop handles attached. In this
they should carry the weeds from their gardens to
the compost heap. In large gardens where the
paths are wide enough, children may be taught
to bury the weeds, but this custom is better among
the older children. The buried weed helps to
fill up hollows and supplies humus to the soil
when, in the future, paths and plots change
places in an occasional rearrangement of the
garden.

From lathing can be made large labels, stakes,
plot markers, root cages and racks. Two culti-
vating sticks can be made for each child, one
bearing his name or plot number to stand at the
head of his bed when not otherwise needed.

136

COST OF EQUIPMENT

The other, similarly marked, with a hole bored
in it, is used to wind the garden line upon, and
when not in use should hang in the toolhouse.
When the line is used its loose end can be quickly
tied to the other cultivating stick. Lines are best
made of four-strand braided twine, and should
be long enough to go easily around the child's
entire plot.* They should not be left out in the
weather to rot.

A saving can be made in the matter of seeds, by
getting them from the government and by buying
penny packets for very small areas. For larger
plots, buy in larger quantities and put them up in
packets holding enough for each child. Com-
pute much more closely than the seedsmen do
for general gardening. Seedsmen sell a "nest" of
seed measures, but one can calculate the quantity
to use by the length of row and distance apart,
allowing some margin. A test tube with an elastic
band to mark the amount of seed needed can be
employed after the amount is learned.

In transplanting, trowels will be found con-
venient. Dibbles can be homemade from an old
broom or tool handle. Fork and shovel are oc-
casionally great conveniences even in a small
garden. A hand plow is a luxury. One with
several attachments, such as rake and weeder,
can be had for from I3.25 up to I7.00 according

* This twine can be bought in bails. If each child is thus pro-
vided, only a few of the longer, more expensive garden lines will be
needed.

AMONG SCHOOL GARDENS

to the number of parts. Number all tools so as
to keep track of them and of the care the children
give them.

In regard to care of tools, every one should be
returned to the toolhouse dry and clean. The
loose dirt should be wiped off with an old cloth,
or better, with a strong brush such as plumbers
use. Every particle of dirt between the tines of a
fork, the teeth of a rake, along the grooves on the
back of the spade, as well as on the handles should
be removed. In the fall, before putting them
away, any rust should be cleaned off with emery,
all handles oiled, and iron parts thoroughly wiped
with a cloth smeared with tallow. The tools
should then be put away in a dry place for the
winter. Linseed oil on handles keeps them mois-
ture proof and smooth so that they will not dry
out and splinter. The tallow prevents rusting
of the metal parts.

The illustration opposite page 171 shows the
position of the rake in use. Such grasp of the tool
calls into play the most strength with the least
effort and avoids fatigue. In hoeing, the un-
loosened ground should be attacked from the edge
nearest the worker, who should stand in the
path. The reason for this is that in so working
each stroke cuts a clear, clean slice off the ground
in front of the worker leaving a clearly defined
line between the soft earth that has been hoed
and the hard, unloosened soil. Then there is no
danger of skipping parts of the ground as there is

.38

COST OF EQUIPMENT

when hoeing from the center of a bed towards
one's self; unhoed portions are frequently cov-
ered by the forward pull of the loosened earth.

In any kind of garden, beds are seldom over
10 feet wide, a measure that gives an adult an
easy reach in hoeing from either edge to the center
and in raking from the center to the edge. This
avoids stepping into the bed or upon the loose
earth. (Where much hand weeding has to be
done, six feet in width is better.) There should
be no trampling of spaded earth or mulch. Rak-
ing should break the coarser lumps and leave an
even, level surface. If necessary, trampling must
be avoided by spading or hoeing in sections of a
width within easy arm's reach. Follow this by
raking the same area and, that section completed,
a new one may be begun. In all three operations,
hoeing, raking, spading, the work should be done
in straight, even lines so that if obliged to leave
it suddenly, it will be completed up to the point
where left and present a tidy, finished appearance.
Section work gives an opportunity for division
of labor among groups of children using different
tools. Let one gang under their appointed or
chosen leader follow the other, as in clearing a
lot, spading and raking it.

Spading should be done properly. It then
cannot harm, and will delight, the children. Even
the smaller ones should be allowed just a few
moments of it. But care must be exercised to
see that children do not reach the fatigue point

139

AMONG SCHOOL GARDENS

and that they use both the tool and their muscles
properly. The strong, shallow spade is not a
crowbar to pry with nor is it a shovel which is
made to lift earth from place to place. The spade
is to loosen relatively soft earth and to turn it
over. To use the spade, start with one hand
grasping the top of the handle, the opposite foot

Proper Use of the Spade

on the blade, and the other hand holding the
handle a fifth of the way down. The weight of the
body should be used to drive the blade its full
length into the earth; the hand should be slid
down nearly to the blade as you lift and with a
light toss ahead completely turn over each spade-
ful of soil. When returning the spade for the

140

COST OF EQUIPMENT

next cut, strike lightly with its back the lumps
of earth just turned as they are falling to the
ground. Straighten the back between each spad-
ing and rest a moment. The brief rest saves the
stooped back, and avoids the quick oncoming
of fatigue. In the work of lifting, depend upon
the muscles of the back and legs, feeling the ten-
sion to the toes and lifting, as it were, by that.
If the blade be turned very slightly when inserted
in the earth, the side edge will act as a wedge and
carry it in more readily. If hardened earth or a
stone be met, moving the spade gently back and
forth will give a better purchase and enough
leverage to dislodge fair-sized stones. (Later,
the principles of the lever may be illustrated and
the reasons for so applying muscular strength.)
Spading and raking as well as ploughing and har-
rowing if properly and thoroughly done are really
more beneficial for many soils than the appli-
cation of fertilizers.

In using the wheelbarrow, demonstrate that
the load piled well to the back is the easier to
trundle; also the respective values of the grip
close to the barrow and of that nearer to the end
of the handles. A substitute for the wheelbarrow
is the improvised litter carried between two chil-
dren, or they may play they are Indians with the
savage drag made of crossed poles tied together.

To sum up: To make an accurate garden esti-
mate, or even an approximate one, all conditions
must be known. One way to go about it would be

141

AMONG SCHOOL GARDENS

to make a list of things that must be done and
must be had; then to decide how each is to be
obtained and estimate the total cost. The list
would include:

A teacher, salaried or unsalaried.

Cost of rental of ground.

Preparation of ground, including labor and fer-
tilizer.

Tools as per estimate.

Flag, roll-book, blackboard or blackboard-roll (to
be hung to post or tree).

Shelter for tools.

Shelter for children. (?)

Seeds and plants.

Water supply.

Sundries, including a few carpenter's tools, as saws,
hammer, whetstone, nails, etc., and a small 'Tirst
aid to the injured" box to treat accidental cuts or
hurts which, however, rarely occur.

142

CHAPTER V

PLANNING AND PLANTING THE
GARDEN

CHAPTER V

PLANNING AND PLANTING THE
GARDEN

" Begin early, early enough to stir up enthusiasm before it is time
to stir up the soil."

"With hand on the spade and heart in the sky, dress the ground
and till it."

TO get the best effect of light and to avoid
shadows upon the plants, buildings should
be placed at the west end, or occasionally
at the extreme east if the garden is a part of a park
or playground. If this be done, the sun from
April to October, after 8 a. m., will strike the plots.
The afternoon sun is less scorching and, in foggy
regions, the western sunlight is the more important.
Consequently, no large trees should be to the west
or south of a garden; they should be to the north
or east. Where a garden adjoins or is part of a
park, if the larger paths are left as broad strips
of turf the effect is much more beautiful.

To give crops a good early start, it is desirable
that the garden should be on a sunny slope to the
south, for such a location will have the advantage
over others of giving some 40 per cent more light
and warmth. If possible, let the location be

AMONG SCHOOL GARDENS

decided upon in the fall so that the soil may be
examined and carefully prepared for use in the
spring. The ground should be fairly even, so
that the slope of the lay-out may be either all one
way or from one or two central lines or ridges only,
as from the top to the bottom, or center to the
sides of the garden. Such an arrangement would
usually settle the question of surface drainage by
the slope and crowning of the paths. If, however,
the ground is markedly uneven, it is important
to have a system of paths and beds that shall
drain it well. If the soil be wet and heavy, it
may even be necessary to introduce tiny ditches.
If the region be one of scant or infrequent rain-
fall, irrigation ditches must be considered. Still,
a unity of plan must be kept throughout, and the
laying out of both paths and plots subordinated
to it. It is impossible to give specific directions
for every site. Various plans must be studied for
the arrangement of the garden, for its shelter or
arbor, its toolhouse and other buildings. Only
general suggestions are possible.

A garden should have a name. Bird-houses
add a pretty feature, and special guide posts or
signs interest the children. Sometimes they like
to name the paths and the summer house.
Fences, arbors, even trellises for small plants, are
best painted green. (It is worth while to buy
the very best green paint.) This color wears well
and harmonizes with nature's coloring.

A garden plan must provide easy entrance and
146

PLANNING AND PLANTING THE GARDEN

exit. Nearly all designs show some central place
for observation of the work carried on in all parts
of the garden. This may be either the center of
the garden itself for pergola, arbor or shelter, or
else some commanding point from which a view
of the whole may be had. From such, the plots
are laid out in straight lines giving rise to larger

Courtesy oj Nalional Association oj Audubon Societies

A Garden Should have a Bird-box

squares or rectangles, or they may be made to
radiate from the center. Rectangular plots are
preferable to round ones, as they can be worked
more easily from the paths; also because they
more readily become component units of a whole.
Farmers' Bulletin No. 218 approves a garden plot
5x16 feet as most readily worked without need

147

AMONG SCHOOL GARDENS

or danger of tramping down the bed. Except in
"training gardens" or where there is a graded
course of work, children's plots are seldom larger

Plover Bed

1 Flower Bed |

1 flower De^

^V^:x£^^| Flowerbed

Flower Bed |

13
OQ

s«.

j»

-T

J»

•^S

1 "*

t.3

flower Bed

5t'f opposite page i ji

Plan of Doan School Garden (Showing Teacher's Table and

Class Bench)

the

than this, and 4x8 feet or 8 x 10 feet is
more frequent size.*

* Experienced teachers maintain that children under fourteen
should not have plots over lox 15 feet. Small beds tend to waste
space by requiring many paths. Dividing a garden into spaces of
5 or 10 feet is frequently easier and, by giving a decimal unit, makes
many problems less troublesome for the children to compute.

148

PLANNING AND PLANTING THE GARDEN

Assuming the ground to have been cleared,
plowed and harrowed, or spaded and raked for or
by these would-be farmers, the teacher should
calculate its area, study its possibilities from
the aesthetic point of view, and roughly map
out her plan. Beginning at the center of the
plot or the central point, she should lay out
a bed for flowers, or a space sufficient to build
the small arbor, pergola or shelter which is to
have vines trained and flowers arranged about
it. Such shelter might have a circular seat and
table to convert it at will into a small classroom
for talks or experiments. It will also provide
a reception or resting room for visitors to the
garden who wish to watch the children or to hear
about their work. From this point the main
paths 3 to 4 feet wide should extend or should
radiate north and south, east and west, and these
should be cut by narrower paths running at right
angles. These main paths must make every part
of the garden easily accessible from the entrance.
The lesser paths should be from i to i J feet wide.
If the grounds are very large, the few main paths
may be 5 feet, those separating sections of the
garden 3 feet wide.*

For convenience let us assume that we wish
the center of the garden to be also the center of
work and interest. To plot the garden, find its

* Paths I foot wide between the individual beds give a more
businesshke look which the children prefer, for they enjoy doing
things as "grown up farmers" would.

149

AMONG SCHOOL GARDENS

center, and stretch two garden lines across the
whole length due north and south, and two
in like manner east and west. Keep these lines
always the exact width of the proposed paths
apart, say 3 feet. Lay out the central flower
bed, or the outlook, with the center of its

□□RHBHDD
DDDDDDDn

DDD
nDDD
D "^
DDDDD
DDDQl
DDDD

DDDDDD

mnna

rnDDD
samn

SSHBD

~ PLAN OF A MODEL CrARDEN-

NUMaED OF PL^TS IN E»CH DIVlSrON-^O i IXEi OF PATHS- /' TO r-fc

base corresponding to the central point of inter-
section of these two outlined paths. Then, first
on one side and then on the other of each pair
of these stretched lines, with the steel garden
tape, lay out points corresponding to the width
or length of the proposed small gardens, or the

150

PLANNING AND PLANTING THE GARDEN

group gardens if they are to be for children work-
ing in groups only. But if the httle gardens, for
instance, were 5x8 feet with their rows running
north and south so that the moving sun may dis-
tribute heat and hght more evenly on the crops
than if they were planted from east to west, the
points marked off would run along the north and
south lines at 8 feet, 3 feet (for path), 8 feet, 3 feet,
and so on; and in the east and west directions, at
5 feet, 3 feet, 5 feet, 3 feet, and so on. Mark these
points with stakes. These must be carefully set so
that each measure of bed or path shall be the exact
measure from the outside edge of one stake to the
outside edge of the other. From the first, stress
must be laid upon this exactness of measure, else
the few inches in the width or even the edge of the
stake, will throw them, as well as the adult who
originally lays out the garden, into confusion, and
create irregular, uneven, undesirable lines which
will destroy all the symmetry the completed pic-
ture should silently and constantly teach.

The actual making of both the paths and the
beds may be left to the children. The smaller
paths should be staked out. In doing this, stake
all those in one direction and then those at right
angles. The individual beds to the required num-
ber should be set off and numbered plainly by a
stake at the center of each plot, facing the head
of the garden. A few individual plots may be re-
served for the "waiting list," but only a few so as
to keep the children keenly eager for them. The
12 151

AMONG SCHOOL GARDENS

remaining beds should be planned both as to
location and size, with reference to observation
work* and decorative effect. Space must be
allowed for a compost heap to be screened by
high grasses, grains, or flowers; also for cold
frames, if any; for the "weed garden"; and if
wise, for both a "model plot," where the planting
lesson is illustrated and the "supply plot" from
which seedlings may be taken to make good in
the children's rows deficiencies for which they are
not to blame. Finally, all the measurements
should be checked off by the steel tape to ensure
absolute correctness. The work may be expedited
by an eight-foot strip of wood which can be slipped
along the ground beneath the extended lines,
while stakes are driven in at the required dis-
tances.! (Such a board 8 to lo feet long, another
4 to 8 feet, and another just 2 feet long, marked in
feet and half feet, will be found very convenient
for garden measurements in planting, transplant-
ing, straightening, bounding edges, paths, and for
many other purposes.) The advantage of plots
laid out from the center of a garden is that any
irregular strips of land will be left at the sides and
ends where they may be used as sample plots,
or to give a finish, as of a rich frame of flowers

* See Appendix A, Note q.

f Particularly in kindergarten work when the board may be made
to mark a furrow with its main edge. It may be laid for the children
to stand on while planting; and to firm the seeds by using it to tramp
them down after they are covered

152

PLANNING AND PLANTING THE GARDEN

to the central part. This framing should be em-
phasized by a path at least three feet wide separat-
ing the border from the main part of the garden.
In the work of laying out the garden, all the meas-
urements should be made by one person or by one
person with a helper.

The next step in planting a garden will be to

Plan of Axe School Garden, Philadelphia

draw it, when thus outlined, to careful scale,
and to make a careful selection of the plants,
flowers and vegetables desired. Such a design
may be made in water color or crayon, to get the
general effect of the contemplated arrangement.

First and foremost, remember to grow only
easy, familiar things. Do not try novelties. You
want your plants to come up. You want them
robust enough to endure varied weather and child

153

AMONG SCHOOL GARDENS

farming. A list of tlie flowers that are pretty
sure to grow, includes the following:

Aquilegia. Morning Glory.

Asters. Myosotis or Forget-me-

Bachelor Buttons. not.

Balsam. Nasturtium.

Calendula, or Marigold. Nicotiana.

California Poppy. Pansy.

Candytuft. Petunia.

Celosia or Cockscomb. Phlox.

Cosmos. Pinks.

Dahlia. Poppy.

Delphinium or Larkspur. Portulaca.

Digitalis or Foxglove. Pyrethrum.

Dianthus (hardy pinks). Ricinus (or Castor bean).

English Daisy. Snapdragon.

Four-o'clock. Sweet Alyssum.

Gaillardia. Sweet peas.

Helianthus or Sunflower. Verbena.

Mignonette. Zinnia.

To secure a continuous bloom from June to
frost, one may select the following, being careful
to allow no seed pods to form:

Whiie: Cosmos, aster, verbena.
Pink: Aster, carnation, cornflower, cosmos, dah-
lia, gladiolus, sweet peas, sweet sultan,
verbena.
Blue and Purple: Aster, cornflower, heliotrope,

sweet pea, verbena.
Red: Carnation, cosmos, dahlia, gladiolus, nas-
turtium, sweet peas, scabiosa, verbena.
154

PLANNING AND PLANTING THE GARDEN

Yellow: Calliopsis, single dahlia, nasturtiums, mari-
gold.
Neutral: Mignonette.*

For high planting one might suggest: castor
bean, golden glow, goldenrod, wild purple aster
(tall), wild sunflower, all good to hide locations
of spent hot beds or cold frames, compost piles
or other undesirable sights.

Of vegetables, it is customary to grow lettuce,
radish, beans, beets, carrots, onions. Corn may
be grown even in very small plots where there
can be only from one to three stalks. Where there
is more space, one or two flowers should be added
(usually as a border at one end or all around the
little plot). If the plots are from 8 to lo feet
or larger, such vegetables as Swiss chard, peas,
cabbage, one or two hills of squash or cucumber,
potatoes, and rows of corn may be selected.
Sometimes a choice of seeds is permitted, but for
the first year's work, particularly on very small
plots, it is better to have the crop uniform or
nearly so. The purpose in the selection of the
seeds covers utility, ease of cultivation, and
typical plant form, and in the planting, pro-
vides lessons in soil and plant economy. As said,
rows preferably should run north and south.
If they run east and west, the taller plants
must be on the north side so as not to cast

* For simple cultural directions for these and many others see
U. S. Department of Agriculture, Farmers' Bulletin No. 195. Annual
Flowering Plants. It is illustrated, and sent free.

155

AMONG SCHOOL GARDENS

their shadow on the other plants, and the paths
between the plots should be much wider, so that
one garden may not overshadow another. Of
course, with low crops the width of the path need
not be so great as where high corn, grain, or even
things no taller than tomatoes, are grown. Ob-
servation plots having tall plants may be arranged,
for aesthetic reasons, against a high wall or fence.

LlNl-,S SlRKICHRI) K)R Pl.ANIlNC. ReD WiNG, MiNN.

If there are round beds, tall things should be
planted in the center. Straight lined beds are
less likely to have edges trodden or be worked
irregularly.

The list of seven vegetables, radish, lettuce,
beans, beets, carrots, onions, corn, to begin with,
contains more than one word that makes the
mouth water with pleasurable anticipation, and

156

PLANNING AND PLANTING THE GARDEN

causes young eyes to shine with the thought of
prospective ownership. From the teacher's stand-
point, these vegetables are typical and full of
material for all sorts of lessons. Corn is typical
of the grasses and grains and illustrates wind pol-
lination. Its first tiny upreared blade warns the
teacher that it is time to have the children
definitely observe and tell her the resemblance

Crops Appearing. Red Wing, Minn.

and the differences between the blade of grass
and that of corn. From this time on until the
ear matures, or even until the use of the old stalk
can be explained, there is opportunity for daily
observation.

But the corn must have only its fair share of
attention. The feathery threads of carrot leaves
differ from the hooked, needle-like stems of the

157

PLANNING AND PLANTING THE GARDEN

plot, will show that, like the daisy, it is one of the
compositae. It will also furnish practice in trans-
planting. No plant shows better the sickness and
ill health resulting from overcrowding or loss of
sunshine; perhaps none offers better lessons in
the hygiene of plants, especially young ones. By
unerring analogy, it shows why pale faced, weakly
children come from crowded, squalid sections of
our city, and how much good air, good food (for
lettuce needs rich soil), and good sunshine mean.
In purchasing seed, care should be taken to con-
sult local conditions and the time limit of the pro-
posed garden, so as to select varieties that will
come to maturity sufficiently early. The child
wants a plant that shows off well rather than one
of particularly fine flavor. Other considerations
that might influence choice, particularly in the
observation plots, would be whether crops were
grown for the child's interest alone, or with a
view to furnishing special material for nature
study or drawing in the schools. A six weeks'
garden is about the shortest growing time al-
lowance, and for such in the latitude of New York,
on a good soil, the following seeds were chosen:

Mature in:

Radishes (Scarlet Globe). .. 17 to 25 days
Beans (Refugee, Thousand

and One) 50 " 65

Beets (Detroit Dark Red). . .70 " 90
Turnips (White Strap Leaf). 70 " 90
158

AMONG SCHOOL GARDENS

baby onions. They represent two families. The
carrot, hke the parsley with its umbelliferous
flower, belongs to the umbelliferae or parsley
family; the onion, to the lily family. The radish
has seedling and later leaves of quite different
form, and as the children grow it, its family re-
lationship to the cabbage, cauliflower and brussels
sprouts would not appear. Let a few of each
run to seed so as to bring out the resemblance.
The carmine of one side of the stripling beet leaf
likens it to, yet separates it from, the useless red-
weed. It will take two years to complete the life
story of the beet.* All five are root crops of one
sort or another, — while one among them is "good
at both ends to eat." The tender leaves of the
young beet plant are excellent for greens.

Beans are a type of the wide spread leguminosae,
though very different in their germination from the
pea of the same family. They both show the root
nodules where dwell the nitrogen-fixing bacteria.
The way the beans push up, and the explanation
of the fat store of food in them, make a delightful
story of the feeding of the young plant. They
offer, also, lessons and experiments showing the
great force of swelling bud and bursting pod, of
things pushing toward the light, — even of trees
and plantlets splitting the rocks. Beans show
self-fertilization.

Lettuce, if allowed to flower in an observation

* Have a sample plot of sugar beets and of the brilliant foliage
beets.

AMONG SCHOOL GARDENS

Mature in:

Carrots (Early French Forc-
ing) 80 days, edible in 60

Onions (White Portugal) pull
any time.

Lettuce (Black seeded) 42 to 50 days

Corn (Early Corn) 60 " 70 " *

A better selection could have been made had
there been more time for them to mature, yet all
except the corn (which will set in the ear), and
possibly the beans, furnish some harvest, even if
not full grown or complete. Consultation with
a skilful local gardener, or a note accompanying
a tentative order to a well established seed house,
will solve doubts as to what variety of seed to
plant. If the local seed dealers buy of reputable
wholesalers, it is well to enlist their interest in the
school garden, assuring them for example that
so old a house as James Vick's Sons thinks chil-
dren's gardens worth a special department wherein
the penny packet figures; and that the general
testimony throughout the country is that, where
school gardens have sprung up, there is an in-
creasingly larger sale for flower and vegetable
seeds.

Before planting, the teacher should test the
percentage of seed fertility by germinating 50 or
100 seeds of each variety (see footnote, p. 184),

* Crops as planted at DeWitt Clinton Park, New York City, and
by the normal class in school gardening under Mr. Henry G. Parsons
at the University of New York, University Heights, Season of July
2-Aug. I I, 1Q08.

160

PLANNING AND PLANTING THE GARDEN

Garden of Francis W. Parker School, Chicago

i6i

AMONG SCHOOL GARDENS

carefully noting results and percentage of germina-
tion. Seeds should be clean, bright, plump, and
range from 85 to 90 per cent in fertility.

In distributing seeds for planting, they may be
given out in envelopes or poured into the child's
hand when he is ready to drop them into the
ground. If the first method is used the envelopes
should be distinctly stamped with name of seed,
and perhaps in addition, with a brief cultural
direction as to the depth of planting and distance
apart.* For marking such envelopes a rubber
stamp or alphabet costing about 75 cents will be
found very useful. In some gardens the lesson
of the day is written on the blackboard to be
copied by the children into a class book, and the
seeds in envelopes are given them as they pass to
the garden. The books are left in the classroom.
Some few boys copy planting directions on slips
which they take with them; others depend upon
comparing memory notes, watching others or
asking the teacher. With third or fourth year
boys in graded training, or older pupils, this
method of blackboard lessons may be good, but
with little folks it seems a weary effort and lost
labor. For them a diary of what they do and
what they see, kept as they choose, long or short,
written or drawn (provided they keep it with a
fair degree of neatness), is greatly to be preferred.

* Planting tables give the usual depth. See Appendix A, Note
10. Very wet weather decreases and very dry weather increases it
by about half the depth of normal planting.

162

PLANNING AND PLANTING THE GARDEN

There are other preliminaries to "planting day"
besides the planning of the garden. Children may
be registered before the first planting lesson, —
and should be if the teaching force is short-
handed. Early in the season, notice should be
given the school children so that they may apply
for gardens. Out of such applications fifty, or
the number desired, may be selected and others
placed upon a waiting list. If there is a sufficient
appropriation, membership cards may be issued,
and later, some form of badge or certificate of
membership or merit. The cheapest way is to
notify the children by postal that they are to ap-
pear for registration at the garden the day before
it opens for classes. At that hour they can be
marched about the garden, shown the toolhouse,
allowed to get a general idea of the premises, and
may be told a little about the work to begin next
day. Then, one by one, they can be registered
in the class book under nationality, school, age and
home address. To each must be given some badge
or card of membership. Denison express tags
with name on one side and the above specifica-
tions on the back may be used. Make the children
understand that the tag or badge, and that only,
carries the right to work in the garden, and to own-
ership of the allotted plot. If lost, it will not be
replaced; if transferred, it will probably be for-
feited, and the garden given over to some one on
the waiting-list. The children will probably tie
the tags around their necks. These tags may also

163

AMONG SCHOOL GARDENS

bear a class or division number to help the
child remember at what hour he must appear for
instruction, though he may come at any of several
allotted periods for the general care of the garden.
The children are now ready to begin business
on planting day, and, if one has to manage many
of them, this preliminary work will prove a great
help. When they arrive for the lesson, select
one or two children in each division to help you
if you should need any assistance. To help them,
you should have all tools and seeds ready, and for

'smm\^\mv'^m\ww\v^\vAVsWs\\ww'vW^^^^^

Bed Marker, or Marking Board

first year first day's work, you would do better
to have the furrows indicated at both ends of the
beds. (This is quickly done with a marking
board.*) Planting by the line might better come
later. It can, however, be introduced on beds
8x 10 feet and over, by stretching the lines across
the initial markings which will help to determine
them. Thus you will avoid, on the very first
planting day, the delay and confusion likely to

* See photograph and drawing. A board i f k t wide, 4 feet long,
beveled strips of wood nailed at distances indicated. For convenience
it may have a long handle attached as the boy has made it.

164

PLANNING AND PLANTING THE GARDEN
SOME FORMS OF REGISTRATION

No. FAIRVIEW GARDEN SCHOOL.

Fill out and Return This Card to Office.

What is Your Name

How Old are You

What School do You Attend

What Grade are You in

Where do You Live

Have You Ever Been a Member of the Garden
School Before

A. Application for a Garden

THE FAIRVIEW GARDEN SCHOOL
Fairview Street and Ridge Avenue, Yonkers, N. Y.

Membership Ticket.

Season of 1909. Garden No

Name

Bring this ticket with you when you pay your dues.
Edw. Mahoney, Superintendent.

B. Mi

HMBERSHip Ticket

Dues

Record of Payments,
cts. per week. Garden No.

April 24

May I

May 8

May 15

May 22

May 29

June 5

June 12

June 19

June 26

July 3

July 10

July 17

July 24

July 3 1

Aug. 7

Aug. 14

Aug. 21

Aug. 28

Sept. 4

Sept. 1 1

Sept. 18

Sept. 25

Oct. 2

Oct. 9

Remarks:

C. Reverse of B
165

AMONG SCHOOL GARDENS

occur when eager children rush to possess their
farms or first begin to make practical application
of figures and measurements. If there must be a
large amount of planting in a limited time, the

Eight-year-old Boy Who Made His Own Marker

long garden line can be stretched across a section
of individual plots and the children may use it as
a guide for the complete planting of one kind of
seed; then, moving it for the next furrow, plant

1 66

PLANNING AND PLANTING THE GARDEN

the second row of seed and so on. Lines of
planting should be even and continuous. The
rows, though broken by paths, should run way
across the garden, both for aesthetic reasons and
for easy comparison of individual plots.

The question arises, shall all the planting be
done at once? If there are large areas to plant,
or the children come every day, it may be divided;
but if they come only once or twice a week, the
sooner the seeds are in, the safer and better,
and the less likelihood of the work dropping
behind and of consequent discouragement. If
possible, finish the planting the first day. In all
small plots this can usually be done. By working
diligently, three-quarters of an hour or less even
is sufficient to plant a 4 x 8 foot plot with seven
vegetables.

The work of the first day should consist of an
object lesson in planting in a model bed, given by
the teacher, with the class at attention in an open
square about her.* An hour's instruction in the
garden including this lesson is long enough for
the first work with little people. The teacher
should do exactly what she wishes the children
to repeat and should accompany the action with a
brief, clear story of what she is about. When
she has finished, the children should march directly
to their own section of the garden and scatter to
the beds bearing numbers corresponding to those

* This lesson may be given indoors by using a small box of earth
to represent the plot, but it is better given outside.
13 167

AMONG SCHOOL GARDENS

upon their cards. They should take their places,
all standing on the same side of their respective
plots. On the first day, it is better for them to
find their tools in the middle of each plot. At
word or signal of command, they should take up
the hoe, and with it mark their first furrow, as
they have seen their teacher do. Then they
should stand at attention and await the order to
make the next furrow a foot to the left or to the
right at the required depth, unless they have the
seed for the first furrow and are told to place it.
Usually it is best for the teacher to inspect each
step of the work, the placing of the seed, its cover-
ing and firming with the back of the hoe, and to do
this in the case of each variety of seed planted.
One span of the child's hand may be counted at
four inches as a measure in planting. The seed
may be distributed from bottles, any number of
which, for convenience, may be placed in a box
or basket. Collect all seeds which the children
do not use and return them to the bottles. In
larger plots, each row of seed should carry a label
bearing date of planting and name of seed.

When the planting is completed, a 4 x 8 foot
plot will require 8 full measures of a 6-quart
watering can, or 48 quarts of water to 32 square
feet of ground. If the children are to have the
fun of watering, a water line should be formed
to preserve order. The one all important rule
in watering is to soak the ground to at least the
depth of four inches, and to water infrequently.

PLANNING AND PLANTING THE GARDEN

perhaps only once a week. A little water only
helps to start evaporation and consequent loss of
ground moisture by capillarity and is worse than
none, if there is to be a water supply, try to
locate it centrally and have a basin of stone work,

Plot 4x8 feet.

Radish i" deep, i" apart

Beans 3" deep. 8" apart

Beets 2" deep. 2" apart

Carrots sprinkle i" apart

Lettuce

to be trans-
planted later

Onions, 8 or 10 seeds, every 12"

Label

-D

Path 18"

Plan of Planting used by Teachers' Class, Henry G. Parsons,

Instructor,

New York University, Summer of 1Q08

however amateurish, to catch the spilled water
and soak it up so as to prevent wet feet and pud-
dles. A 4-inch hydrant will furnish good working
force, if fitted with two or more cocks for inch or
two-inch hose. The hose itself had best be one-

169

AMONG SCHOOL GARDENS

inch pipe because it will be 7 pounds lighter for
each 25-foot section than the usual if inch piping.
It will wear out less quickly from being dragged
about, and the children are less likely to do dam-
age with the smaller stream.

A general rule for planting flower seeds is to
scatter very fine ones on loose earth, cover with a
board, and stamp into the ground. For conven-
ience with children, the very fine seeds may be
mixed with fine earth and then scattered in rows
or broadcast to be firmed into the ground. All
small seeds should be planted the depth of their
greatest diameter and larger seeds like nastur-
tiums four times that depth. Very hard seeds,
such as castor oil bean and those of some gourds,
should have the end opposite the little root stock
cut with a sharp knife. Seeds like parsley,
known to be long in germinating, may be soaked
for twenty-four hours in warm water.

Lettuce needs abundant nitrogen. Cabbages,
cauliflower, etc. are benefited by it if applied after
they begin to head up. (They take phosphoric
acid from the ground.) In sandy soils they would
like some extra potash. Beets and turnips re-
joice in extra nitrogen and phosphoric acid.
Beans secure their own nitrogen through their
colonies of bacteria. Carrots like barnyard ma-
nure with a little additional potash. Tomatoes
like a similar enrichment with a nitrate well mixed
into the soil at transplanting time. Clay soil
suits cucumbers and squashes, while muskmelons

170

w^'

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PLOWEn Gkolnd

Raking Smooth
PLANTING OPERATIONS,

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PLANNING AND PLANTING THE GARDEN

and watermelons demand a warm, light, sandy
soil. Excess of nitrate will cause any one of the
four to grow too rapidly and give a poor quality
of fruit.* Too rich a soil will send nasturtiums
to leafage instead of to bloom.

In addition to planting their own beds, enlist
the children, as much as you can, to help plant
the flower beds, sample plots, vines, etc.

On the chart of the garden, not only the chil-
dren's plots but all others should be indicated.
What and how many they are, will depend upon
the extent of the garden. There should be at
least a number of flower beds, the commoner
vegetables not grown in the children's plots, and
if possible, the common grains, grasses, kitchen
herbs, staple cereals and one or two things such
as peanuts or cotton or sweet potatoes to pique
the children's interest. There should be a weed
bed with the seeds carefully destroyed just before
they are fully ripe.

" Perhaps you would like to know what flowers
we raised. There was a most luxuriant growth
of sunflowers, hollyhocks, gladioli and sweet peas.
There were pansies, and pansies and pansies every-
where. Then there were large double marigolds,
calendula, which are even now in bloom, fifty-
seven feet of petunias, the same of dianthus pinks,
and nasturtiums — handsomer than any I had
ever seen before. Our borders of mignonette were
perhaps more satisfactory than anything in the

* See Miller, Louise Klein: Children's Gardens, p. 174.
171

AMONG SCHOOL GARDENS

whole garden, making the air rich with fragrance
for a long distance. . . We now have on hand
for next year some fine nicotiana and sweet
William plants.

RoS£ SPRAV TOP.

M/lIN VV/lTER riPL.

Aquatic Garden with Fountain
Cement basin with inside tub for clear water: approximate cost I15
to %2o. Half barrels and nail kegs can be substituted.

"We used petunias, pinks, pansies, mignonette,
and sweet peas together with autumn leaves to
decorate one of our churches. The yellow flowers
we had saved for one of the other churches, but
Jack Frost forestalled our plans.

172

PLANNING AND PLANTING THE GARDEN

"I shall be glad to tell you something of our
potato field, for as much, if not more, of our in-
terest centered there as in the flower garden.

"The practical problems met in connection with
the cultivation of potatoes were considered under
three heads. First, the disinfection of seed by
the use of formalin, to prevent scab; second, the
relative value of different fertilizers, considered
with reference to the needs of the soil; and, third,
observation of the effects of Bordeaux mixture as
a preventative of late blight."*

In planning and planting a garden, Louise
Klein Miller's "Children's Gardens" is extremely
useful with reference to all garden work, especially
for planning effects, and for suggestions as to
nature study. It contains a list of trees for the
arboretum, of shrubs for planting, and of ferns for
the wild flower garden. For one entirely inex-
perienced, H. D. Hemenway's "How to Make
School Gardens" is most helpful. It devotes
thirty-five out of ninety-six pages to explicit de-
tails of planting, arranged in twenty-one lessons.
These lessons are as simply told as if they were to
be placed on the blackboard for children to copy.
The book also includes some account of the
common weeds. For work with little children,
Frances Duncan's "When Mother Lets Us Gar-
den" has many delightful hints. Celia Thaxter's
Little. Classic, "Peggy's Garden and What Grew

* Palmer, S. T.: Vermont Circulars of Educational Information.
No. XI II. (Describing school garden at Johnson, Vt.)

'73

AMONG SCHOOL GARDENS

Therein" has become almost a text-book in
many schools in connection with the school
garden. "Children and Gardens," an English
book by Gertrude Jekyll, is suggestive, though
written primarily for home conditions. "School
Gardening for Little Children," by Lucy R.
Latter, who did so much for the school garden
movement in England, has chapters which were
originally written for the Practical Teacher "in
the hope that the experience set forth might en-
courage other teachers to introduce nature teach-
ing into their schools." It is very explicit, de-
lightfully written, and full of helpfulness to both
teacher and children. The " School Garden Book,"
by P. Emerson and C. M. Weed, is valuable. It
outlines the work for each month throughout the
year. Finally, of perennial interest, will alvv^ays
remain that pioneer, "The School Garden," by Dr.
Erasmus Schwab of Vienna, the originator of this
recent, happy means of making school and its
studies delightful to children.

'74

CHAPTER VI
AFTER PLANTING, WHAT?

"It is of the utmost importance that children should acquire the
habit of cultivating a plot of ground long before the school life begins.
Nowhere as in the vegetable world can his action be so clearly traced
by him, entering in as a link in the chain of cause and effect." —
Froebel.

"Give a child large interests and give them young." — Alice Free-
man Palmer.

LESSONS and experimental work in the gar-
den will vary as it is or is not attached
■^ to a school, and somewhat according to
the children's knowledge of outdoor life. There
may be the difference between a review of some
topics and a first presentation of them. When
gardens come to be a part of the school cur-
riculum, a very large percentage of the nature
work now done indoors will be done outside. In
this department surely the garden should be
the "outer classroom of the school," to the
great advantage of both children and teacher.
Everywhere that the garden has been introduced
in connection with the school, the universal
testimony is that it stimulates the child to better
intellectual grasp of his studies. Even where it

177

AMONG SCHOOL GARDENS

has been added to the routine of the school, the
teachers say that the time required is a welcome
break that is more than made up by the vim and
expedition with which the pupils attack their
other work.

Where the individual beds are not over lox 15
feet, actual gardening would not require more than
fifteen minutes or, at most, half an hour each

A School Garden Class, Red Wing, Minn.

school day; not over one and a half to two and a
half hours per week. Because of the nature of the
work, its period in the school program is frequently
not a fixed one. Cultivation, or tillage of their
plots, to be most pleasurable to the children,
should be something that they can enjoy when
they please, or be sent to as a delightful change
from their routine work. This is accomplished

178

AFTER PLANTING, WHAT?

in many gardens by allowing the children a wide
range in the hours assigned for the general care of
their plots, within which time they may come and
go as they please. When the garden is accepted
as a part of the regular school routine, this
period is sometimes arranged by the principal,
who, knowing the time best suited for garden
work, may interrupt any grade lesson to send the
children out, perhaps to take advantage of the
hour after a sudden shower to mulch their grounds,
to grasp some fleeting opportunity to study in-
sect life, or to note some passing state or stage of
nature. "The grade work may be made up any
time; showers and sun do not wait; the garden
cannot," was the gist of one Canadian teacher's
belief and practice.

There should, of course, be some definite half
hours set apart for possible outside work.
Many times such periods will be suitable for it.
When they are not, they can be filled by indoor
work. Any suggestion that recess time be given
over to gardening because it offers change of posi-
tion, change of thought, fresh air and exercise
for the larger as well as the smaller muscles; that
in quality and quantity of work it may be adapted
to all years, should be peremptorily vetoed on the
ground that to be ordered to a task, however
pleasant, is to take away the feeling of release from
responsibilities, the sense of freedom, which is the
very essence of a recess period. It should give
the freedom to do as one pleases, to associate with
14 179

AMONG SCHOOL GARDENS

one's fellows as equals, and is essential to the
child's welfare. A monitor might, however, be
in the garden during recess so that any children
who wish may go to their farms. Often, a shy or
unsocial boy or girl would prefer to do so.

Whether the garden is correlated with school
work or not,* there is a waiting time, after the
planting, before the children can cultivate their
plots. It will be a week or two before they may
safely begin. If the children come but once a
week their second lesson should be upon paths,
and if the day is suitable, they should be taught
to make them; it is essential that the garden
from the first shall have an attractive appearance
which will impress favorably all visitors. At the
second lesson, in order to evoke greater interest
in them, there should also be a little talk on seeds
and what they are doing in the ground. Yet
time should be left to set the outdoor housekeep-
ing in order.

In regard to the paths, the children should first,
with the handles of their hoes, measure their
plots exactly, to be sure that the stakes are still
in correct position at each corner. Carefully
pass the garden line around the whole bed about
two inches from the ground, keeping it taut.
Each child should make two of the four paths
that surround his bed, say the north and west,
or south and east. Impress upon him that from
that time on he will be responsible for those by-

* For chart of correlation, see Appendix A, Note i i.
1 80

AFTER PLANTING, WHAT?

ways; that upon them he is to stand whenever
possible to do his work; and on them, not on his
neighbor's, he is to throw his weeds or stand his
weeding box or lay his tools. Children should be
made to take certain paths in coming and going.
A good rule is to follow the right hand path or
paths to the nearest main one.

In making paths, the child should begin with
the gutter. With the point of the hoe draw a
deep groove directly under the garden line along
one side of the plot and then along the other, for
each child is to make but two paths. This gutter
should be from one to three inches deep, according
as the soil is dry and sandy or wet and clayey.
Having made the groove, the child will then, with
the back of his hoe, bank the edge of the bed at an
angle of about 50 degrees. Next, with his hoe,
he will draw the dirt up and away from the groove
until it becomes the middle of the little gutter.
The loose earth is drawn into the center of the
path, or upon its "crown." A good rule is to have
the center of the path a smooth, level, even sur-
face, equal in height to the center of the bed.

Narrow paths may be hardened by having the
children tramp them down and pound them smooth
with the back of a hoe. Broader ones are
much better rolled hard. An improvised roller
can be made of a bit of drain pipe with a piece of
very tough, strong wood, or an iron bar for an
axle, held in place by a filling of stones and rub-
ble, through which cement has been poured. A

181

AMONG SCHOOL GARDENS

team of children can be harnessed to draw it.*
Where seeds may be sown broadcast, as in some
of the observation plots, this roller will be handy
to firm them, provided the soil is not clayey.
If it is, you do not wish by rolling and compacting
to create a layer of hard, soggy crust through
which tender seedlings may not have the strength
to penetrate.

What are the seeds doing down in the dark
earth? Are they all doing something, and in
the same way, and why? These are the ques-
tions the children ask, and the true answers
you want them to determine, to think about
and to discuss among themselves. The question
why the seeds do so and so is one that we
must frankly admit cannot be completely ans-
wered. Nobody knows just why or how the seed
develops. We see them do certain things and we
say it is because God or nature put into each
tiny seed a plan of life, and to that plan each
seedling keeps, perhaps because it knows it ought.
Anyway, each kind of seed clings to a definite
plan of development through its whole life.
Whoever has watched seeds of the same and of
different kinds develop as far as they are able
and then gradually die, knows that each one
of them has one great purpose, which is to
reproduce itself by seed, and to reach that

* In order to have it roll, when filling in the stones and cement
the axle must be protected by a collar of wood or tin or something that
will prevent adhesion to it and leave just enough space for revolving.

182

AFTER PLANTING, WHAT?

end there seems to be no plant that does
not do three things. It makes another like, or
better than itself, that will continue its kind upon
the earth; it helps to keep the earth beautiful
and habitable with a covering of green things;
and finally each plant fills a place of real use,

Root Cage or Planting Frame. (Strings Stretched to Meas-
ure Growth)

as food, or as material to be made into cloth-
ing or as a thing of use or beauty. The lesson
of reproduction is taken up again when pollination
begins. The usefulness of the plant should be
the strong point in lessons at the harvest time.

The plant's determination to make the best of
itself in good or bad soil, in good or bad environ-

.83

AMONG SCHOOL GARDENS

ment, is a daily lesson beginning with the baby
seed. Accordingly, the children must see what
is going on underground. It is not feasible for
every child himself to conduct all the experiments,
but as each should do as much work of that sort
as possible, a number of experiments in germina-
tion can be made.* First, let
the teacher arrange a root cage
with garden soil, and plant at
the same depth as the children
did, one seed of each of the dif-
ferent vegetables. These will
illustrate what is happening in
the earth. But would every seed
act alike? some child should be
led to ask. By way of answer,
let a group of children take a
number of seed germinators and
place a dozen or twenty seeds
of one kind in each and later
compare the germination in the
testers with that of the same kind
of seed in the root cage. Let each
of the other children plant one or
two seeds of each sort in different kinds of soil,
sandy, clayey, etc., in moss, or even in sawdust.

View of End Piece
Showing Grooves
Root cage, glass 8
inches X lo inches;
frame of lath, Q inches
X 1 1 inches; end
piece width of lath;
strips of lath put on
to form grooves.

* In order to examine readily the very starting of germination,
some seeds should be germinated on wet blotting paper placed on
one plate and covered by another to keep seeds warm, damp and dark.
They should be looked at each day, preferably under a microscope
or magnifying glass.

184

AFTER PLANTING, WHAT?

Five or six racks containing ciiimneys or glass
tubing cut in short lengths, would give nearly
every child one bit of experimental work to watch
and to record in his diary. The racks would not
take up much room, and by turning them end
foremost and using the first hole alternating with
some other, each experiment with the same kind
of seed could be lined up for easy comparative
study. Similarly, other experiments with plants
growing in dampness, darkness, or crowded as to
roots, and also under opposite conditions, may be
made. Suggestions and examples can be found in
the United States Bulletins on School Gardening,
in C. F. Hodge's "Nature Study," Osterhaut's
"Experiments with Plants," and other similar
books, such as Holtz's "Nature Study," and
Coulter and Patterson's " Practical Nature Study
and Elementary Agriculture."

Attention may be called to the weight of the
earth upon the seed and to the force with which
the plantlet pushes through to light and air. A
flower pot filled with beans with just enough
water to cover them, covered with a pan and the
whole tied about in all directions with strong,
firm twine, if left to stand a short time, will show
the enormous strength and bursting power of
that seed. Bottles, if loosely covered with cloth
to catch the flying glass, may be used by the
teacher to show how seeds with lesser power
expand.

This lesson may be carried out to show how
185

AMONG SCHOOL GARDENS

rootlets pierce between and push aside the frac-
tured rock particles which they meet. Attention
may be called to the fact that even tiny moss or
lichen roots, as well as the larger ones, give off a
wee trail of acid that streaks the rocks and causes
decomposition to set in along the trail. In many
places, this is the first making of soil. The rock
weathers enough to furnish food for the clinging
plant, and, as the latter decomposes the hard
surface, tiny seeds, blown by the wind or
dropped by the birds, take root. Each plant
as it lives and dies helps to form new soil until
at last in the ledge of rock a tiny tree seedling
may start and shoot upward, finding a fissure or
crack through which to make its way; and thus by
the roots which it pushes down in search of water,
and the trunk which it urges upward in order that
its leaves may get air and light, forces the rock
apart.

The story of the dropped seed suggests other
rainy day talks upon seed travelers, stories which
are told in many of the nature books that are now
before the public. Such suggestions are found
also in Cornell leaflets, and in Nos. 2, 4, and 10
of the Hampton Teachers' Leaflets procurable
at 5 cents each. The natural development of
many seeds comes so late in garden work that it
may be well to antedate their season with some
talks about them to fill in the days before the
first of the little farmers' harvests arrive. Later,
there may be reviews and special studies. Ex-

186

AFTER PLANTING, WHAT?

periments showing the exterior and interior of
seeds, their outer and inner coats, their various
embryonic development, the pattern of the tiny
plant, as well as its store of food for the seedlings,
suggest themselves. The vitality of seeds fur-
nishes many useful stories. So, too, do lessons on
the different kinds of roots, these latter to be
reviewed as the various root crops are harvested.
Lessons on branching, budding and plant develop-
ment generally, come naturally as talks while the
crops are up and growing. Brief cooking lessons
will suggest themselves when there are things to
take home to eat.

Some specimens of plants that are cultivated in
the vegetable gardens for their roots or leaves,
must be allowed either there or in the observation
plots to go to seed so as to show that they com-
plete the round allotted to all plant life. In the
observation plots, however, the weed seeds must not
be allowed to ripen. Some of the seeds gathered
from last year's field and pasture may be used
to show their methods of bursting forth for travel.
Some attach themselves to an animal's fur or to
clothing for free passage (as do "stick-me-tights"
on children's stockings), while others, like the
dandelion, or the milkweed which spreads its
tiny sail to the wind, depend upon the air for
transportation.

The Department of Agriculture puts up for
$2.00 apiece, two interesting collections of seeds
of one hundred each. Some seed forms are so

187

AMONG SCHOOL GARDENS

curious that it is well in passing just to introduce
them to the children as seeds, for they might not
be recognized as such; some of the nuts in our
stores, for instance, or the seeds of certain un-
familiar kinds of fruit. There are the interesting
black-eyed Susans and the pearl gray seeds from
Hawaii, the "Job's tears" of which necklaces
and sometimes rosaries are made.

Many stories of the ways and life of people are
found in the plants. Nearly every child knows
the story of Sir Walter Raleigh and the tobacco
plant. Many know the history of the white or
Irish potato; but few adults know which of our
garden vegetables are very, very old, and how
many are of recent development. Nor have
they had a glimpse of the fascinating life of ad-
venture and travel that brought us tea and
rice from China and India; the radish and the
onion from Asia and Egypt; and, far more re-
cently, the tomato from semi-tropic regions of
our own continent. A few of these stories do not
come amiss and may be found suggested in
botanies and in agricultural or horticultural
encyclopedias.

This is some of the work that may be scattered
through the summer; with it comes the daily
cultivation of the gardens. Cultivation may be-
gin as soon as the plants are about two inches high,
if it is carried to within two inches only of the
seedlings. There will be also the daily care of
paths; the daily work in company over all the

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common territory of main paths and observation
plots; tiie occasional thinning of seedhngs with
the opportunities for teaching both plant and
human hygiene and sanitation; the replanting of
plots and lessons that may be introduced at

"* I

Outfit for Insect Study

Costly glass mounts ran be replaced by a strip of cotton batting enclosed between
two panes or sheets of glass, bound together by strips of surgeon's plaster.

Net made of a loop of 12 inch wire bound to a handle of bamboo. To the wire
loop a bag of mosquito netting may be sewn or lashed.

such times on rotation and succession of crops.
Finally, there are the lessons in the value of
harvests, whether of flowers and vegetables on
the little beds, or of the crops on the sample plots,
or their relative values on the experimental beds,

IQO

AFTER PLANTING, WHAT?

In addition to lessons in plant life we have the
story of the whole society of animal life that
gathers in the garden. Toad and worm have
their story as well as insect and bird. Insect life
is good or bad, beneficial or injurious.

Among insects, the helpful lady-bug; the harm-
ful aphis or plant louse; the useful scavenger
beetle, and the destructive potato bug; the striped
beetle that troubles squash and tomatoes; the
curious click beetle and the voracious cutworm
and wire worm will demand attention. The
cabbage butterfly will in a few short weeks give
a typical life history in a completed round.
It also will illustrate
the reason why each
year as a nation we
lose so many millions

of dollars through in- '^^'^^ Spreading Board

sect depredations, and why we need the birds
to help us keep down their number. The parsley
worm and tomato worm will develop for us into
beautiful fliers, one a brilliant-edged swallow-tail
butterfly, and the other a superb moth. On milk-
weed may be found the caterpillar of the vivid
Monarch butterfly, known in some places as the
"Princeton" because of its yellow and black.
The bee, from a safe vantage point, may be
studied as he visits the flowers and carries the
pollen from one gay flag to another hung out

* See Appendix A, Note 12, for check list of 34 common butter-
flies.

IS 191

AMONG SCHOOL GARDENS

to tell him of hidden treasure; or his habits may be
more thoroughly investigated if the garden is rich
enough to possess a model hive. The visiting birds
and the toad come in also for watchful study.

Each teacher must plan her own outline of work
and adapt her day to any special study its events
may suggest. Set lessons may
have to be used in handling
large numbers of children, but
the ideal would be friendly talks
with little groups, apparently on
the spur of the moment, yet
having a line of sequence run-
ning through the entire sum-
mer's work. One good manual,
like Comstock's or a book like
Weed's on "Insect Life," or
United States bulletins such as
No. 196 on the Garden Toad or
Nature Leaflet, No. 18, Mass.
State Board of Agriculture, on
Aphids, will contain sufficient
accurate information for the
teacher who has had no train-
ing in nature study or science.
In the garden there are occa-
sions for some of the florist's operations of seeding,
potting, transplanting.* One graphic rule serves for
transplanting as well as for thinning, and the chil-
dren can more readily remember it than a number

* See Appendix A, Note 13, for directions for these operations.
192

" Killing Jar."

Cyanide or "killing jar"
may be an ordinary pre-
serve jar or any wide-
mouthed stoppered bottle
that may be tightly closed
to keep in the poisonous
fumes from the lump of
cyanide. This should be
set in plaster of paris.

AFTER PLANTING, WHAT?

of fixed distances. It is based upon the fact that
plants should not interfere with one another, and
that there is a general proportion between the size
of root and leafage which can be illustrated. Thus,
if the children, when ready to thin beets or trans-
plant lettuce, are told to recall the size of the beet
root or of the head of lettuce as they have seen each
in the store; to draw roughly on the ground a circle
of approximately the same size; and then to draw
another similar circle just touching the edge of
the first, they can see that the distance between
the centers of the two circles would be about the
distance apart that the plants would have to stand
so as not to interfere with each other.* Such a
rude estimate would cover all the common vege-
tables; though in the case of unfamiliar growths,
like corn and beans, the necessary distance would
have to be given them.

There are some details of the school garden that
relate to the teacher more than to the child, which
should be considered. Where a school garden
has several members on its staff, they should be so
selected as to work in perfect harmony and with
loyal obedience to their head, who should be
capable, generous-minded and considerate. He
or she should be competent to superintend the
garden and all its activities ; generous to give
credit to the assistants for work well done or
for helpful suggestions ; reasonable in planning
the work for both children and subordinates, in

* This method is suggested by Mr. Henry G. Parsons.
193

AMONG SCHOOL GARDENS

sharing plans, present or future, with fellow work-
ers, and considerate with assistants and children
while they are carrying out the scheme of work
outlined for them — for here, weather interrup-
tions, human frailty and the unexpected some-
times dislocate the best laid plans. Nowhere is

Thinning his Plants

there greater need for care in selecting the per-
sonnel of a teaching staff; nowhere does char-
acter count more than in the intimacy between
children and teachers which the garden fosters.
Tact, good judgment, justice, firmness, gentleness,
directness, sympathetic understanding of child
nature, normal sensibilities, a wholesome sense of

194

AFTER PLANTING, WHAT?

humor, tolerance, patience, ready forgiveness and
large hopefulness are fundamental qualities for a
teacher.

These virtues allay antipathies, ward off hostil-
ity and arouse gratitude in children and neigh-
bors. It is well to remember in handling the chil-

"The Father of the Man without a Job"

dren, that they are frequently human barometers
subject to the personal atmosphere of the garden
or the home. Put yourself in the child's place,
with his experience, his often incorrect knowl-
edge and the prejudices of his environment. If he
errs, reason with him for his good, not because of

195

AMONG SCHOOL GARDENS

your broken discipline or offended dignity. Each
day clean the slate of his misdeeds. Have peace
between you and welcome him each morning with
a large hopefulness for his future. Be merciful,
— for he may encounter only indifference or neg-
lect or temper at home. These do not grow easier
to bear by frequent experience, and in all classes.

Normal Student's Home Garden, Washington, U. C.

children receive occasionally the equivalent of the
quick blow or the gruff command. The habitual
courtesy of teacher to teacher and to child finds
itself reflected in deference and gentleness of mood
in the child, though sometimes expressed in far
from polished phrase or gesture.

196

AFTER PLANTING, WHAT?

Dress, too, has its effect. You are trying to
cultivate the child. Old clothes, — clean, whole,
unadorned, — have a rightful place when man or
woman is grubbing in the ground. They may be
more appropriate on some work days than on
others when a simple suit with some style to it
and, in case of a woman, with a touch of pretti-

Writing up the Day's Diary

ness, would not be injured and would eloquently
preach a number of lessons. Not economy and
adaptability, but slouchiness and disorder and
lack of thrift are taught by the torn shirt sleeve,
the broken shoulder brace, the skirt pinned and
sagging at the waist band, and the old fmery or
gown or blouse "good enough for garden work."
Jewelry, beyond ring and pin and watch, is an

197

AMONG SCHOOL GARDENS

abomination, and may become a temptation if
carelessly laid down. A practical shirt-waist suit
or wash dress, or clothes of a color that does
not show the stain of dirt and soil, are needed.
Even with the children there should be insistence
upon cleanliness, upon neatness (with reasonable
consideration of their social class), and upon proper
clothing — if there is a tendency to over or under
dress. Overalls and aprons are appropriate.

Garden records should always be kept, both for
immediate use and later reference.* They may be :

1. Child's records.

a. Daily attendance.

b. Daily weather report.

c. General work each day.

d. Daily harvest.

2. Records of visitors, or the Garden Guest Book.

(This pleases the children, their parents and
visitors.)

3. Principal's records.

a. The day's work for the children, as prepared

alone or in conference with the assist-
ants.

b. Work accomplished by the children.

c. Record of each child's attendance, conduct,

harvest.

d. Record of visiting classes.

e. Record of nature study material or of flowers

supplied.

* For types of records from School Gardening for California
Schools by B. M. Davis, see Appendix A, Note 14.

198

AFTER PLANTING, WHAT?

f. Miscellaneous records, of trips by the children
to other schools, parks, experiment sta-
tions, and of any events worth registering.

Summer work in the garden will include some
carpentry, such as repairing of tools and making
of apparatus. It should include some cooking.*
Even though there be
no opportunity for
house-wifery, a few
simple cooking lessons
can be given over an
oil stove in an impro-
vised and sheltered
corner kitchen; or
better, the cooking
can be done with one
of the steam cookers
that range in price
from $5.00 to I7.50.
This method demon-
strates economy in
fuel, as would also a

fireless cooker which is easily improvised. Thecook-
ing could be done in connection with a guest day. A
vegetable dinner, a salad supper, or a "green tea"
is a great drawing card to interest the children's
parents. In fact it is a good thing to have a
"parents' day" regularly and frequently with
either some such feature as just mentioned or

* See Appendix A, Note 15
199

Home-made Breeding Cage

A large chimney standing in saucer or
flower pot or fitted into a block of wood, if
its top is covered with netting, will serve.

AMONG SCHOOL GARDENS

an interesting talk upon some topic connected
with the garden. The parents represent the tax-
payers and pubHc opinion, and when they approve
the school garden sufficiently to demand it, the
ward politician will get in line with the best educa-
tional leaders who are doing all they can to push
it. In order not to be swamped by guests, or
embarrassed by financial problems, these social
occasions can be apportioned among difi"erent
groups of children, who will entertain their par-
ents or friends at stated times.

From the first day that the garden is open to
the last, cultivate the good will of all in the neigh-
borhood. It is much more creditable to elicit
voluntary help, or even successfully to beg as-
sistance, than for a teacher to accomplish every-
thing by herself or through her coteries of friends.
The garden is for the children and they are to feel
that they own it; that they largely make it what
it is; and it should be among their people, for
their people, and enthusiastically encouraged by
their people.

CHAPTER VII

AN INTERLUDE: SOME GARDEN
WEEDS

CHAPTER VII

AN INTERLUDE: SOME GARDEN
WEEDS

"One can imagine no more irrepressible rabble than these weeds of
the garden. They seem possessed almost of a conscious life, and to
push and shove and scramble for place like a hard-headed, thick-
skinned, piratical crew." — S. D. Kirkham.

SCARCELY thirteen years ago John Bur-
roughs in a chapter on a Bunch of Herbs
made an interesting sub-division, Weeds,
and in the "long list," as he calls it, 42 were given.
Today the United States Department of Agri-
culture issues a "set composed of 100 samples of
weed seeds — those most commonly found in the
commercial seeds of cultivated plants." It "is
intended for the use of educational institutions
and seedsmen in identifying seeds by compari-
son." Considered as the bane of a school garden
a large proportion of these weeds may be omitted;
not because they are not bold robbers of rich soil
but because many of them belong to special
areas of our country, and in their local haunts are
as well known as is the dandelion everywhere. If
they occur in the school garden it will be as iso-
lated individuals or as a plant colony, and prob-

203

AMONG SCHOOL GARDENS

.-e»-<^i,

First Year's Growth of Yellow
Dock

ably come up in the sample plot according to the

seed that has been
sown and that seed's
most intimate enemy.
In school gardens
of from 5 to 10 acres
where the sample
plots are of consider-
able size, or in gar-
dens connected with
agricultural schools
or colleges, the weeds
would beimmediately
recognized by the trained teachers in agriculture
who are usually in charge. If they occur in the city
school garden or
the small rural
one, they are often
easily placed as to
their name and his-
tory by a careful
study of the crop in
which they appear.
If local conditions
supply no oppor-
tunities for this
kind of research,
and helpful bulle-
tins cannot be had from either Washington or the
State Experiment Station, the weed will be iden-
tified if sent to the latter. Moreover, your sample

204

JiMsoN Weed

AN interlude: some garden weeds

plot seed has probably been sown in drills or rows.
(One can usually get as much or more on the same
area and cultivate it more easily than when sown
broadcast.) Seedlings and weeds will come up
together, but only a very short time will be
needed before the characteristic appearance of
each will disclose its variety. Rarely is seed so
adulterated that the weed equals or exceeds the
plant desired.

It is only the weed in the rows that need cause
trouble, for proper cultivation between them
should eradicate the foreign population when
young. In its youth the weed is not sturdy,
whether youth be considered in relation to
actual age or to its appearance in a new locality.
Beware of its second season. If it is an annual,
though it die, it has first scattered its myriad
children. If it is a perennial, it has not only
done this but has firmly established itself, pre-
pared to increase by its roots, by underground
runners, by division of root, by rooting joints, by
suckers or by more than one of these, or by all,
so tenacious of life are weeds.

"The most human plants after all are the weeds.
How they cling to man and follow him around the
world! How they crowd round his barns and
dwellings and throng his garden and jostle and
override each other to be near him"* — and what
good turns they sometimes serve him!

If we look at weeds for their food value we find

* Burroughs, John: A Year in the Fields, p. 135.
205

AMONG SCHOOL GARDENS

first of all, perhaps, the dandelion and water
cress; at least, these are the best known. In
different sections of the country, different weeds
maybe utilized. In old New England many were
used that are still used occasion-
ally. The introduction of, and
great improvement in our now
common vegetables relegated the
weeds to an obscurity out of
which, today, several have been
brought by the customs of dif-
ferent nationalities among our
poorer people.

A school garden should strive,
particularly in the cities, to in-
troduce as varied a dietary as
possible, by teaching the use of
all garden greens and by calling
attention to the edible ones
among the weeds. Among these
are milkweed, which offers in its
young and tender shoots mate-
rial for salads. These shoots
preserved in layers of salt until
winter time, shaken free of it
and rinsed, will give greens for
the pot. This use is common
still in parts of New England. As a pot herb
also may be used that scourge of the garden,

* From Bailey's Cyclopedia of Horticulture. By permission of
the Macmillan Co.

206

Plantain
Flowering spike of
common plantain.
Broad leaved plan-
tain or hen-bread.*

AN interlude: some garden weeds

purslane or "pussley." An eighteenth century
writer speaks of it as being "little inferior to the
asparagus." We can cheerfully consign it to the
boiling cauldron. In the garden it is most perni-
cious, spreading rapidly and re-rooting at every
joint left carelessly in the shade or in damp earth.
Its small yellow flowers open in the hot sunshine
for only a few hours, but spread their seeds gen-
erously. These are of so great vitality, that if
deeply buried and years after accidentally brought
near the surface, they will spring to life again. Its
smaller leaves are used for salad and for garnishing.
Purslane and its
cousin, the portu-
laca, have many
habits in com-
mon.

L-ape v^Oa peo- common Purslane or Portulaca

pie use golden or Oleracea*

marsh dock and

seashore plantain or "Goose Tongue," while in-
land folks use curled dock for a pot herb and oc-
casionally the common plantain. The docks are
cousins to the sorrel or sour grass. The family
resemblance between the two is strong. There is a
little garden weed called wood-sorrel, with leaves
and yellow blossoms closely resembling the culti-
vated oxalis and belonging to the same family.
As children, we have all sampled peppergrass and

* From Bailey's Cyclopedia of Horticulture. By permission of
the Macmillan Co.

i6 207

AMONG SCHOOL GARDENS

used it for our children's parties long before we
knew that some varieties of it were cultivated
for salads. We readily accept beet tops, spinach
and Swiss chard as greens, but question the use
of the coarse pigweed whose tender shoots are as
much sought for food in some sections of our land
as were the young branchlets of the common

nettle, which the early col-
onists boiled for pot herbs.
Some of the beneficial
weeds or medicinal herbs
are described in the "Thir-
ty Poisonous Plants of the
United States."* With
the exception of the poi-
son ivy and oak, they are
not likely to injure man,
but only animals that ac-
cidentally crop them. In
Farmers' Bulletin No. 28,
Weeds and How to Kill
Them, some ten weeds are
considered as very obnox-
ious from the farmer's
standpoint and pertina-
cious in their hold on life. An even hundred are
listed and their characteristics tabulated. Of
these, some 25 or 30 are fairly universal, appear-
ing in cultivated fields and in the small garden.

Couch Grass

* Farmers' Bulletin No.
Medicine.

See also No. i88, Weeds Used in
208

AN interlude: some garden weeds

Some few are more common in the roadside
colonies. The road is the place all weeds love,
— as much as does the human traveler or tramp,
— if they have means of their own by which to
travel or fly or even if they must steal a ride to
some new home by hooking on to coat of pass-
ing man or beast. From the road, we would not
wish to banish them. There, we who ride or
tramp for pleasure appreciate their color, and
their form, but less often know their queer and
curious habits, and means of survival in the wayside
struggle for life. When in some region we find
what we may have known as a nuisance, safely
cultivated as a flower, we are impressed with the
truth of the saying "a weed is a plant misplaced."
Weeds, then, are excellent from an aesthetic
standpoint. In nature's plan they cover with a
restful, cool mantle of green every waste place
that man fails to cultivate; and there is a
touch of grim satire in their luxuriance, as if
" the rough muse" were bidding man discover how
rich the earth for his own use, how costly his
neglect to reap such wealth. In nature's realm,
weeds — most prolific of seed bearers — have their
economic value also. The despised ragweed, for
example, holds its seeds until the birds in winter
need them to satisfy their hunger. Fall brings the
time when insects hibernate and our year-round
birds become vegetarians on a diet of dry seeds,
for which, as supply houses, the weeds] figure
largely.

209

AMONG SCHOOL GARDENS

But coming to the school garden on a hot sum-
mer's day, the sight of a luxuriant growth of weeds
may banish all their uses from our minds. Our
mental attitude shifts and our only thought is of
extermination. Many of our plant pests, par-
ticularly those of foreign importation, multiply

WooDBERY Garden, Baltimore. The Lot Before Cultivation

SO rapidly that they sometimes take over en-
tire fields. They love the land of room and
liberty.

Children love the black-eyed Susan or Dutch
daisy and the white or ox-eyed daisy. Honesty
compels us to count them among the farmer's
worst enemies along with sorrel, wild mustard,

210

AN interlude: some garden weeds

wild carrot, hardback, chicory and cocklebur.
Asters, goldenrod, milkweed and rag-weed are
among the rank plants of our roads and fields.
Asters and goldenrod we should sorely miss.
Every country boy or girl knows the milk-weed
with its juicy stems spilling milk at every crack

WooDBERY Lot After the Children Made Their School Garden

or break, its boat-like pods laden with silk of
finest tissue, beautiful in texture as the precious
fabrics brought from the Indies. Its deep reach-
ing roots are as strong as its seeds are ephemeral.
The ragweed loves to lift its handsome head
with greenish-yellow powdered flowers, above the

21 I

AMONG SCHOOL GARDENS

much branched stem
and finely divided
leaves, and to throw
far and wide its acrid,
unpleasant perfume.
This is a cousin of
the imperial Roman
wormwood, the
"ambrosia," taunt-
ing name to hay
fever victims.

In the garden soil
there are layers upon
layers of weed seeds
of different vitality
and constitutional
needs. " If I uncover

the earth in my fields, ragweed and pigweed*

spring up; if these are

destroyed, honest grass
or quack grass or pur-
slane appears; the
spade or plow that
turns these under is
sure to turn up some
other variety, as chick-
weed, sheep sorrel or
goose foot."! Let us add the pretty smartweed,

* Known also as bacon weed, lamb's quarters. There is also a
rough pigweed.

f Burroughs, John: A^Year in the Fields, p. 137.
212

Pigweed*

Carpet Weed

AN interlude: some garden weeds

the dainty, exasperating carpet weed, shepherd's
purse, the thistle (it will be an English or Canadian
or even Russian specimen, not our good American,
which clings to roadside, swamp and wood), the
bindweed (one of the wild morning glories), the
wild cucumber (an excellent friend as a cover vine

Leaf, Spike and Root of Broad-leaved Dock

if its seed pods be picked before they ripen). Then
there is the live-forever, out of whose thick leaves
children make bags, by slowly and carefully rub-
bing the tough skin until it loosens and forms a
pouch. The jimson weed* with its large, curious

* It is one of the night-shade family as are both black night-
shade, a garden weed, and the common white potato, and is classed

213

AMONG SCHOOL GARDENS

and prickly seed-pod and its luxuriant growth, is
liable to appear in any garden made from a vacant
lot. Then there are the speedwell with its very
tiny white flowers, the galinsoga, also with little
white flowers and rough leafage, — new importa-
tions that threaten our garden kingdoms, — while
our own evil poison ivy frequently crops up.*

On farms and large areas, special means may
be used to eradicate certain weeds, as spraying
for wild mustard. There are some chemical prepa-
rations that used in
small quantities will
kill weeds in walks
and grass and yet
not injure the latter.
The only absolute
remedy since all
gardening began is
frequent tillage. On
tiny plots the cul-
tivating stick, on small beds the hoe; on larger
plots the wheelplow and on large tracts of land
the horse or traction machine are needed. "The
weeds are not easily discouraged; they never
lose heart entirely; they die game; if they can't
have the best, they will take up with the poorest .
. . . in all cases they will make the most of their

under poisonous plants; consequently it is well to warn the children
not to put any part of it into their mouths

* See note at end of this chapter for this plant and for popular
names of common weeds.

214

First Year's Growth of Broad-
leaved Dock

AN interlude: some garden weeds

opportunities"* — and herein lies tiie only speck
of morality in weeds. When you are fighting
them, if you let them get the best of you they
are a giant rabble, or a low-down, back-breaking,
pestiferous crew. They even tell tales, for by
their growth they tell the experienced eye what
sort of discipline — or care — the garden has had.

POISON IVY

(Poison ivy, poison vine, poison creeper, mercury or markry and
three leaved ivy, usually climbing or trailing but sometimes erect
in growth.)

Teach the children it has three leaflets while the wood-
bine or Virginia creeper, for
which it is often mistaken, has
five. The ivy has masses of
white berries standing out al-
most straight from its stem;
the woodbine has smaller clus-
ters of deep purple berries
that droop. Birds spread the
ivy seeds so that it may ap-
pear in the school garden in
sections where it is common
in fields and pastures or along
the roadside. Poison ivy is
harmless to many. Toothers
it is a rank poison because of
the non-volatile oil found in Poison Ivy

all parts of the plant even
when seemingly dead. Consequently, it ought never

* Burroughs, John: A Year in the Fields, p. 158.
215

AMONG SCHOOL GARDENS

to be burned, but be rooted up by someone who is not
susceptible to the poison. It may also be killed by
putting a half-teaspoonful of concentrated sulphuric acid
on the stem every two or three weeks during the vigor-
ous spring growth. The poisonous oil can be carried
on the hands, clothing or towels from the immune to
those who are not. Those who have to handle poison
ivy should wash their hands several times — and their
clothing in strong soapsuds. The common remedy for
the poison is sugar of lead dissolved in 50 to 75% alcohol.
Pure alcohol will kill it if applied to the first eruption,
and if it is not spread by scratching. Various other
remedies are often suggested. Light cases will usually
cause more or less discomfort for a week or ten days;
but ivy poisoning can be a very serious matter. For
those who know themselves to be unusually suscepti-
ble a daily rubbing especially of hands, neck and
face, with a cloth wet with alcohol, may act as an
armor against its attacks. To such, a crystal of citric
acid, dampened and rubbed over the spots as soon as
they appear, and repeated frequently, is a safeguard.
Such treatment will usually cure in from twenty-four
to forty-eight hours.

POPULAR NAMES OF COMMON WEEDS

1. Burdock, cockle button, beggar's buttons, hurr-
burr, stick button, hardock and hardane.

2. Mullein, great mullein, velvet plant, velvet or
mullein dock, blanket leaf, flannel leaf, feltwort, old
man's flannel, Adam's flannel, Jacob's staff, Jupiter's
staff, Peter's staff, Shepherd's club, candlewick,
torchwort, torches, hedge taper, lungwort and hare's
beard. A stalk has been known to have 60,000 seeds.

216

AN interlude: some garden weeds

3. Broad-leaved dock, little dock, blunt leaved
dock, button dock and common dock.

4. Yellow dock, curled, narrow or sour dock. This,
the broad-leaved and the yellow-rooted water dock are
used in medicine.

5. Couch grass, dog grass, quick, quack or quitch

Mullein

Flowering Plant of Burdock

grass, twitch or witch grass, wheat grass, quake grass,
Dutch grass, devil's grass, creeping wheat grass and
various other names. Plough up the roots and burn
them, for they are long and tenacious of life, oozing
with vitahty at every point.

217

AMONG SCHOOL GARDENS

6. Jimson weed, Jamestown weed, apple of Peru,
thorn apple, mad apple, devil's apple, common
stramonium.

Mullein

218

CHAPTER VIII

THE SCHOOL GARDEN IN VACATION AND
TERM TIME

CHAPTER VIII

THE SCHOOL GARDEN IN VACATION AND
TERM TIME

"The earth is here so kind, that just tickle her with a hoe and
she laughs with a harvest." — Douglas Jerrold.

"This movement is one of national importance — one that is des-
tined to have a profound influence on educational thought and
educational method in this country; it supplies one of the glaring
defects in our system of elementary instruction." — W. J. Spillman.

THE scope of the instruction in a school gar-
den varies greatly, from simple cultural
directions at one end of the scale to the
full use of all that its vegetable and animal life
may suggest to the trained school gardener or
skilful teachers with which it may be connected.
While trained school gardeners remain in the
minority, gardens conducted during vacation time
are likely to confine themselves to the simple cul-
tivation of plants. Where they possess a trained
stafi^, their activities are utilized to the utmost.
Keeping in mind these variations in scope and
purpose, the school garden will now be considered,
first, as an occupation for the vacation time, and
second, as an adjunct to or a corporate part of
the school.

22 1

AMONG SCHOOL GARDENS

Of school gardens which exert by far the greater
part of their influence during the summer there
are (i) those that belong to the vacation school;*

(2) those that emphasize that phase of agricul-
tural training known as truck gardening; and

(3) those that serve a sociological rather than
an educational purpose. They are actually social
centers for the children, though they may or may
not be centers from which radiate such activi-
ties as properly constitute a social settlement.
They may oflfer no more than the opportunity to
cultivate a few flowers and vegetables together
with directions for the use of insecticidesf to a
group of children that it is desired to benefit by
wholesome occupation. They may be conducted
for every possible attraction that will enable them
to hold and to mould children; to give the latter
happy hours and cultivate their hearts and minds
while training their hands to useful toil. Some
vacation gardens hold the child's interest in grow-
ing things throughout the fall and winter, by
indoor study of nature, and by work among
plants in a greenhouse or under sash. Further,
such gardens sometimes supplement this work by
courses in manual training preparatory in part to

* School gardens belonging to summer students of normal schools
or universities are a class by themselves, — often hybrids. They are
wholly in the hands of adults or they are children's gardens receiving
summer care; or, if children are connected with them, they are
pupils from a vacation school or, more frequently, volunteers from
among the school children of the vicinity.

t See Appendix A, Note 16.

222

IN VACATION AND TERM TIME

the employments of the garden; by elementary
arts and crafts work, and by maintaining a
winter playground and club house.

Gardens in connection with vacation schools
are likely to suffer from the fact that the school is
open for a short season only, and also from the
meagre and short-lived support which their share
of the vacation school funds usually provides.
Unless outside aid can be secured, the garden runs
the risk of having to close before the crops are
ripe, which is not fair to the children.

Of the second class of gardens, three have
already been mentioned; namely, the pioneer gar-
den of the National Cash Register Company at
Dayton, the garden of the School of Horticul-
ture at Hartford, Connecticut, and the Training
Garden of the Home Gardening Association of
Cleveland. In each of these the work is planned
preeminently to give a practical, serviceable,
remunerative knowledge of truck gardening. Yet
the underlying aim of Mr. Patterson and Dr.
Goodwin, the founders of the two first named
gardens, was the broad purpose of developing the
boy through the labor performed, the special
knowledge gained, and habits formed. The same
desire to cultivate boys as well as plants, pre-
vails at the Cleveland Training Garden. Be-
cause its method of training is so individual and
because the boys are encouraged to stay for play,
this garden in a measure falls into the third class
of vacation school gardens.

223

AMONG SCHOOL GARDENS

These three gardens give a graded system of
work which, however, is only loosely defined at
Cleveland and Dayton. In the former city, the
boys are in charge of a superintendent and assistant
teacher who take the greatest pains to make them
realize the freedom accorded them in the garden.
Each boy's development, as agriculturist and

Comparing Crops

embryo citizen, is watched over. The garden-
ing program is not yet completed but the inten-
tion is to develop a three years' course and,
perhaps, to end it with a taste of nearly all the
activities of a farm.

At Dayton, a trained gardener, one fond of
children, is employed to have the care of the
gardens and flower beds, and to inspect and
instruct in the boys' section. The Hartford

224

IN VACATION AND TERM TIME

plan is different. Not so much attention is
given to nature study. Easy, graded, outdoor
lessons are given in horticulture and in some
of the work in the greenhouse, together with
the budding, grafting, and transplanting that
can be done in the tree section, grapery and
small fruit areas. The director, the superintend-
ent of grounds and the assistant teachers have
the work in charge. There is a progressive
scheme of planting. The first year, the seeds are
selected. The boys of the third and fourth years
are allowed considerable latitude in the selection
of their crops.*

With such gardens as these three may be classed
the many others which hold the child by the ap-
peal to what he can make. The older boys from
twelve to sixteen are past the age to play at being
farmers. They want work and a relatively large
area of crops to show for it. They are willing to
work if they can have returns that seem worth
while either as a frequent contribution to the
family table or as a sum total represented by so
much cash at the end of the summer. Experi-
ence teaches that from a business point of view,
the plot should be at least 8 x lo feet if the child
farmer is to make any profit, while such a garden
would require at least three half-hours a week for
cultivation. The older boys, if they can give the
time to it, want plots at least lo x 20 feet and
better 10 x 30 feet. The rule that goes into effect

* See Appendix A, Note 17.
225

AMONG SCHOOL GARDENS

at Hartford in 1910 is that plots for the first,
second, third, and fourth year boys respectively

3x,o '

What Park Life Boys Plan
A. Hedge, Thunberg's barberry (raised in nursery). B. Flower
beds, bordering entrance walk; double beds lo feet x 20 feet for two
beds. C. Entrance walk; D. Shrubbery at base of loggia. E.
Loggia or roofed porch. F. Bungalow. G. Carriage turn. H.
Rear entrance. L Norway maples. J. Shrubs and small trees.
K. Evergreens. L. Stable or work house. N. Service road, 16
feet wide. O. Tents. P. Tool house. Q. Hot frame. R. Cold
frame. Common, for drill, games, etc.

shall be 8 X 20 feet, 8 x 30 feet, 8 x 40 feet, and
8x50 feet.*

* See Appendix A, Note i8, for the returns from 34x8 feet garden,
from one 10 x 30 feet, and one 8x16 feet.

226

IN VACATION AND TERM TIME

Of the vacation gardens that are being con-
ducted chiefly for their sociological value, several
have been mentioned. They look to the develop-
ment of the child, the social unit of the future,
and to the immediate effect that his improvement
may exercise upon his home and neighborhood.
Some of the best-known examples follow:

The work of the Boys' Brigade, Toronto,
Canada, does not center in the garden, but the
latter is counted one of the most valuable de-
partments and its products are honored with
many prizes at the annual fair which the boys
hold.*

Mrs. Henry Parsons' garden at DeWitt Clinton
Park, New York, is a model of what a little
ground can do each season for hundreds of chil-
dren, giving them a safe place wherein to gather,
and happy work together, with better ideas of
life and its meaning.

At Dubuque, Iowa, Park Life School Garden
offers boys a new kind of school through the
summer months, — an outdoor school of life.
There must be provision for the boy's work and
for his play; for his instruction through the ex-
perience of others and through his own experience;
and more important still he must learn the conduct
of life. Accordingly, boy officers with the help
of their adviser-in-chief manage Park Life School
Garden and conduct their magazine, " Park Life."
In the school garden, the boys are instructed in

* See page 15.
227

AMONG SCHOOL GARDENS

cultivating the ground, in raising vegetables and
flowers; in the near future they will also have
practical work in tree and fruit culture. From
the garden they must provide largely for their
daily food, because for a part of each summer they
live in tents on the high bluff upon which their
garden is located. From the camp they can see far

Park Life School Garden, Dubuque, Iowa

up and down the Mississippi River and over into
Wisconsin. Part of the summer program in-
cludes a week of tramping or driving through the
country round about, which is rich in historic and
geological interest. A daily talk or lecture is
given upon some phase of the boys' work, while
the swimming pool and the joy of camping offset
lessons and work. The gala week of the summer

228

IN VACATION AND TERM TIME

is that when teachers of note are invited to the
camp to instruct the boys, not formally, but by
close companionship with them and by lectures or
talks especially adapted to their day's occupation.
Writing of his plan, Mr. B. J. Horchem, the Ad-
viser-in-Chief, says: "Millions of dollars are given
to endow colleges, but ninety-five per cent of the

The Daily Lecture for Park Life Boys

boys never reach college at all; the five per cent
or less that do, are old enough to help themselves.
The boy who enters Park Life is in the greatest
need, because it is before his labors are worth
anything, and at a time when he will learn to
feel that he has a part to play in life, and that he
will learn to know his part and play it well."

22Q

AMONG SCHOOL GARDENS

Fairview Garden School, Yonkers, is now sup-
ported by the people of that city. It was started
about seven years ago by Miss Mary Marshall
Butler, President of the Women's Institute of
Yonkers. In 1909, the Fairview Garden School
Association of Yonkers was formed to manage
and provide the running expenses of the garden.
Its call for $5.00 per boy was promptly responded
to. The Russell Sage Foundation allows the
Association to use the land, club house, and
greenhouse at a nominal rental.

A large building upon the estate was renovated
and used in the winter of 1909-19 10 as a club
house for boys and girls, a number of whom had
had gardens during the summer. Its object is to
provide normal social and educational activities
through clubs, talks on outdoor life, stereopticon
views and formal lectures, and as far as possible
to relate the winter work with that of the garden
so that interest in the latter may be continuous
throughout the year. When the house was
opened the children came in such crowds that
they had to be divided into three groups, and
these again subdivided according to age. Over
800 children are registered. The house affords
accommodations for reading and game rooms, a
Penny Provident Fund station, clubs and classes.
A Junior Civic Club and a City History Club are
projects of the future.* The Green Leaf Club
and the Vegetable Class include children who had

*See Appendix A, Note ig.
230

IN VACATION AND TERM TIME

gardens last year. Members of the latter are
carrying further the study of the vegetables they
raised. They use their summer note books and
add items from the winter course. Home work
is encouraged and each member must grow at
least one plant, even if the pot be only an old
tomato can. The children are thus held together
throughout the year by their play and social
instincts and their delight in watching what they
have planted come to fruition. As one of the
vice-presidents of the Association expressed it,
"continuity of work gives double efficiency."
During the autumn the garden was used as a
general playground, and in December it was
flooded and converted into a skating rink.

The public schools of Pittsburgh are under a
decentralized system and each ward runs its own
schools. Thus it happens that the Pittsburgh
Playground Association receives an annual grant
from the city to carry on its work, which includes
schoolyard playgrounds, recreation park play-
grounds, recreation centers (in summer, virtually
vacation schools without their formalism), and
the new department, established in 1909, of
nature study and school gardening. Much at-
tention is given to these two subjects. School
gardens are to be located at each of the large rec-
reation centers with their playgrounds, and in
other suitable localities. A number are already
well established. This is virtually social settle-
ment work.

231

AMONG SCHOOL GARDENS

One feature of the nature study work in Pitts-
burgh is the tramps that the children take under
experienced teachers. Any child may go on
these. But the pleasure of handling his treasures
and learning how to safely keep the things that
he has brought home from such tramps, watch-
ing what will happen to cocoon or caterpillar,
and the joy of naming, pressing, and mounting

Pittsburgh Children Enjoying Their School Garden

specimens, with his comrades in the sunny room
that is provided can only be earned by work
on a small farm for the season. After all, farm-
ing is unpleasant only when it is very hot. So
think many of the children as they join the
farmer's squad. They have even been known to
leave the nearby playground deserted, preferring
the attraction of their gardens.

232

IN VACATION AND TERM TIME

In order to have the children's work of the
best, the conductors of the tramping excursions
are picked and especially trained teachers. That
the garden work may come up to the same
standard of quality, winter courses in nature study,
psychology and pedagogy for the normal students
and for teachers have been arranged by an
exchange of services between the director of
nature study and school gardening of the Pitts-
burgh Playground Association and the professors
of the University of Pittsburgh. The work in-
augurated this year promises to send Pittsburgh
to the front in school garden work along with
Washington, Cleveland, Philadelphia and Yonkers.
These four cities, in the individual character of
their work, are doing on a large scale what many
small communities are accomplishing elsewhere by
faithful efforts along the same line.

Coming now to gardens carried on in connec-
tion with the regular school tuition, we find marked
latitude in method and range, varying from
voluntary work of children at recess and before
and after school, under the guidance of their grade
teachers, to regular teaching as a part of the
curriculum and definite garden work in the classes
through the year. Some illustrations may sug-
gest an intelligent choice of method.

One city gives this example of school gardening
and civic improvement. The children of several
schools situated in a colored quarter volunteered
for garden work, each room or grade making

233

AMONG SCHOOL GARDENS

itself responsible for the planting and care of ten
little garden plots in the nearby backyards. The
neighbors gave the ground, the children did the
work and met the necessary expenses out of

Making the Most of a Small Space

their school fund which they had raised in var-
ious ways. Streets that had been scarcely more
than alleys took on an orderly look; grass plots
were trimmed, — even with a pair of old scissors

234

IN VACATION AND TERM TIME

when there was no better means. Encouraged
by their schoolmates' labor, the children and
some of their elders planted a few small flower
beds of their own. This city also set a squad of
its school boys to work on a vacant lot, 70 x 150
feet, where they enjoyed growing a mixed crop,
largely beans, for the local market. The experi-
ment did them and the neighborhood good and
all hoped that it would be repeated. In the same
city one troop of school children made an excel-
lent formal garden.

Excellent results were obtained in Cincinnati,
where the Woman's Club has encouraged garden-
ing among the school children, chiefly at their
homes. It distributed seeds and hired one of
the university students to give talks, inspect the
children's home gardens (over 1000 in 1908),
and to supervise the work at the Douglas School
garden, Walnut Hills. The gardens varied in
size from a reasonably large backyard vegetable
patch to a window ledge of cans with growing
plants or to a tiny space made by taking up a few
bricks in the crowded and densely populated
districts where tall apartment houses and tene-
ments elbow each other. Many neighborhoods
having gardens were much improved. The Doug-
las School garden, carried on throughout the
summer by the colored children, collected from
different parts of the city for this vacation
school, is one of the brightest and trimmest and
most satisfactory among the smaller gardens of
18 235

AMONG SCHOOL GARDENS

the country. It is located on two sides of
its school, and on one side runs far back. Its
flowers were massed in the front, while long
lines of vegetables stretched away in the back-
ground. There were twelve rooms in the school
and as in the spring, each class had planted
and tended its own vegetable and flower plot.

The Douglas School Garden, Cincinnati

SO in the summer time, each grade carried
on the work, though with a different set of chil-
dren. It showed good planting with suificient
uniformity and excellent results, and gave evi-
dence of intelligent supervision and a recognition
of those silent values that build character and
develop a sense of citizenship. Its effect was

236

IN VACATION AND TERM TIME

felt in the improvement of home premises. The
gardens of several other neighborhoods could well
compare with the much-praised improvements in
those sections of Dayton influenced by the lesson
of the Boys' Gardens of the National Cash Register
Company of that town.

The utilization of a garden in connection with
two schools of New York city illustrates what can
be done when there is a will to make a way. In
one case a 3I foot border around a 90 foot play-
ground was made by tearing out the concrete and
carting in soil. The garden cost |8o. It grew
in the spring cosmos, beans, lettuce, beets, nas-
turtiums, radish and sweet alyssum; in the fall,
one row each of daffodils and hyacinths and six of
tulips were planted. Down town in Greenwich
Avenue another small garden (see page 238) holds
the interest of many little folks. Each grade
and each division is represented by two young
farmers who not only take care of their section
in the garden but must be able to tell their
classmates all about its growth. These lectures
are supplemented by the nature-study teacher.
Work in the garden is enjoyed by the drawing
classes also.

New York has no school gardens officially
recognized as a part of her school system. There
are a few in connection with the vacation schools.
DeWitt Clinton Park School Farm belongs to
the municipal park system. Though it offers
nature study material to nearby schools and ob-

237

AMONG SCHOOL GARDENS

servation practice to visiting classes, it is a summer
garden in that the greater part of its work is
done, as has been said, during the vacation
months. Many of the school teachers of Greater

Conquering Difficulties, P. S. 41, Manhattan,* New York
City

New York are firm believers in the gospel of the
school garden and to further it have formed The

* In sections of the oval, the children raised peas, carrots and
beans bordered by dwarf nasturtiums; lettuce and zinnias; balsam
and radishes (the flowers blooming after the vegetables were gone);
and one section of potatoes.

In the border, the gardeners of the different grades raised daffo-
dils, narcissus, hyacinth together with cypress and madeira vine;
pansies, dwarf nasturtiums, sweet alyssum and scarlet runner bean;
a rhubarb plant, a seedling oak and maple, a hydrangea, iris, man-
gold, zinnia and wild aster; day lilies, violets, lily of the valley,
radishes and zinnia; while the sixth grade had a wild flower plot.

238

IN VACATION AND TERM TIME

School Garden Association of New York, with a
membership of looo. Their first annual report in
the spring of 1909 showed over 80 school gardens
carried on by the voluntary efforts of these public
school teachers.

The gardens just described are but loosely
connected with the school life. Philadelphia,
by contrast, correlates the garden work with
that of the school "from the kindergarten to

^^^^^^^^^^Hb''^ — ^ "^^pffStB^Bt^^B^

W^'^m

' •'. ■•"■»«;^«I4

School Garden and Arsenal Park, PriTSBUROH, Pa.

the senior class of the normal." During the
school term, the classes from the kindergarten
to the fourth grade inclusive visit the garden dur-
ing school hours. There they have a talk of
fifteen or twenty minutes, and then, on the class
plots, put into practice what they have heard,
observing and working the rest of the period. The
talks or lessons are progressive through these
grades as are those for the individual plot holders

239

AMONG SCHOOL GARDENS

who come from the fifth, sixth and seventh grades
to work in the garden after school from three-
thirty to five o'clock. These last are children who
ask to be farmers. At the end of the school year
they surrender their plots to a new set of children
who possess them during the summer, during
which time the class plots become sample plots.
The correlation of the garden work is left to the
grade teachers. The summer lessons are distinct
from those of term time and are also progressive.
A summer's day is divided as follows:

8.00-8.20 A. M. Nature study lesson.

8.20-9.30 A. M. Individual plot work.

9.30-10.00 A. M. Work on borders and sample
plots.

The vacation classes are large and come three
times each week, being subdivided into two sec-
tions, A and B. The B section follows A and
repeats the program from 10 to 12 a. m. The
last half hour of the session is reserved for the
teachers for the inspection and clerical work that
ends the day.

In Cleveland, the bond between garden and
school is looser, while in Washington the garden
work is minutely defined in every grade and each
child has as regular work allotted to him in the
garden, as in arithmetic or other studies.

At the Whittier School of Hampton Institute
(see footnote, page 21) the garden is closely asso-
ciated with the work in nature study and draw-
ing. Here, as in some other schools, exercises

240

IN VACATION AND TERM TIME

consist of cutting siliiouettes of garden tools and
picturing little gardens by clippings from florists'
catalogues. Strings and necklaces of seeds, seed
pictures and twig stories, as well as furniture
made of burdock burs, allow the children's
hands to work out their own ideas. School-
garden work of the same character must not be
repeated through the grades. It must be adapted
to the age and the experience of the children.
This may be accomplished in several ways.

An eastern Normal School, Hyannis, Mass.,
in its six years of school life offers gardening to
the children practically during three years of the
course, each being a full garden year. The school
garden course takes its place in the spring in
the second, fourth and eighth grades and in the
fall in the third, fifth and ninth. Dr. W. A. Bald-
win considers that the natural standpoint from
which to view the school garden is as a farm that
is to minister to human needs. Consequently,
it is best seen in connection with a home. In
such a garden each child performs his own labor
and enjoys the fruit of that labor. At the gar-
den in Hyannis every effort is made to conform
to this idea. In the laying out of the vegetable
beds of the fourth grade, it is planned to make
the individual plots in long continuous rows of
about twenty-five feet so that the general appear-
ance would be that of a garden on an ordinary
farm or on the child's home lot. Indeed, he is
expected, with the co-operation of his parents, to

241

AMONG SCHOOL GARDENS

reproduce his school garden at home, on a larger
scale.

1 1 ! t II

tDDDDDD '"

tDDDDDD

tDDaDDD

iDDDDDD

I-

DDDDDD

-<-4-

Grt

iif-i

*i-

1!-

Plan of Hyannis Garden
242

IN VACATION AND TERM TIME

With little children there must be a close
resemblance of form, for individual initiative is
not, as yet, developed. The child must have in
his home about the same tools and plans to work
with that he has in the school garden, or he will
fail to carry his knowledge from one to the other.
But in the second grade, work is confined to the
child's innate love of digging and to calling his
attention to the major differences in form, color
and growth of the simplest flowers of which he
may become the owner. These are selected by
color and the garden is planned for color masses.
A little later he is to grow his plants not for
himself alone but to share fruit or flower with
his home people. In the fourth grade he has
chiefly vegetables, and is taught to harvest
them and take them home in good condition to
his mother. In this year's work he is expected
to market enough of his crop to pay for his seeds.
In the eighth and ninth grades the children are
expected to pay all expenses from the returns.
In these grades also, they are expected to plan
their work, map out its details, arrange for plow-
ing and fertilizing, do the planting, market the
produce and carry on in the school all those neces-
sary operations of accounts and banking that the
up-to-date farmer would meet in converting his
seed into crops and these into his bank account.
The children have practical problems in arith-
metic and in surveying; practice work in cooking;
exercises in English based upon their garden;

243

AMONG SCHOOL GARDENS

instruction in drawing, and in making garden
accessories in the manual training department.

In the management of the garden and of the
necessary money, the class fund, garden club,
and parliamentary debate find a place. Here
the commercial basis is a natural one because as
the work is done by the children these different
problems arise and their solution becomes of vital
importance to them. In connection with these,
the child's relation to his mates gives opportunity
for the study of ethical questions and for a well-
rounded development. School gardening is not
dragged into each school exercise of every day,
but for the few weeks in spring and fall of the
years in which it occurs it is made the center of
the school activities.

The State Normal University at Normal,
Illinois, with its school garden of two and one-
fourth acres, its 4x10 foot plots, and areas for
field-crops, corn and fruits, conducts its work
somewhat difi'erently. The crops grown by the
children are not theirs. They are grown for the
nature study, art, or domestic science depart-
ments of the normal school. In the intermediate
grades the children are required to have home
gardens and to report their condition and bring
samples of their produce. In this way home and
school are connected. The use of the garden
grows with the child's development through the
eight grades. Here is one of the best illustra-
tions of the value of the school garden to enrich

244

IN VACATION AND TERM TIME

school life from the kindergarten until and after
the children take up elementary agriculture.

"The scope of our work expands with the age
of the pupils. . . . The upper-grade students
and students in the normal department make the
garden auxiliary to their science work. . . .
Few individual plots are assigned in the school
garden. We have arranged, however, to use for

Sixth Grade Pupils Budding Peaches. Normal. III.

individual plots this season with the seventh,
eighth, ninth and tenth grade children a portion
of our university farm of 95 acres lying just
across the road from the school garden. The
land will be laid off in strips of 100 feet wide with
paths. The land in these strips will be rented to
the students at 2 cents per front foot ($8.70 per
acre). No pupil may rent more than one-fourth

245

AMONG SCHOOL GARDENS

acre. The land will be ploughed and harrowed
for the boys and we expect most of it to be put
into corn. . . . We are about to extend our
garden work now to our farm which heretofore
has been leased, and in the next few years hope
to have as successful practical work in agricul-
ture and horticulture as is found anywhere in
our country."*

Beginning in the spring of the first year, seeds
are planted in egg shells to take home or to
transplant into the school garden. Seeds of
the four-o'clock, the nasturtium, radish, lettuce,
and beans, are planted by these little children.
Smaller and finer seeds, more varied plants and
more comprehensive work are subjects taken up as
the child advances. In the third grade there are
simple exercises in germination and plant growth,
in the comparison and selection of seed. This
grade does some work with simple cuttings,
while a more extended study of them is deferred
to the seventh. The work each spring is in
large measure a preparation for that of the fall,
as in slightly less degree the fall work is a prepa-
ration for the spring. The gathering of seeds,
their storing, and some of the winter work in the
greenhouse where the children pot, plant seed-
lings, and, as they are old enough, learn the pro-
cess of budding and grafting, are of especial
value.

The children of the fourth grade study bulbs,

* Letter of President David Felmley, January 31, iqio.
246

IN VACATION AND TERM TIME

tubers and roots as well as seeds, as an illustra-
tion of the means by which plants increase. In
the fifth grade they study the life history of a
plant ; as for example the beet — a biennial —
while the sixth learn to make and use a cold frame.
They also make a careful study of the cabbage
family.

In the upper grades, well defined color schemes
of planting are worked out, and experiments
of varied character with different crops and fer-
tilizers, etc. The boys take the farm problems
and the girls the aesthetic. The school plan calls
for certain work to be done at the same time
in the home gardens and thus strengthens the
children's interest by winning their parents.
The whole plan of the garden is most attractive;
the flower section, about half an acre in extent,
is massed to the front. The waving grains,
vegetables, nurseries, graperies and experimental
plots are at the rear.

Some schools begin growing plants for nature
study and develop a garden as "the pivot around
which the course of study revolves." The work
through the school year is done by the regular
instructors who spend one hour each week in
the garden. The summer work may have a
special instructor for half of each day.

We give in the compositions that follow two
illustrations of the correlation of garden and
language work.

247

AMONG SCHOOL GARDENS

Corn
Corn belongs to the grass family, the stalk is jointed,
and the leaves and ears grow from the joints. It
grows from eighteen inches to thirty feet high.

There are four kinds of corn that grow in Minnesota.
They are Dent Flint, Sweet and popcorn.

Corn is planted in
hills about three feet
eight inches apart,
when the weather is
warm enough. It
needs rich loam, and
warm, wet weather to
grow well.

Corn is used in feed-
ing stock and making
glucose and oil. Al-
cohol is also made
from it. We make
corn-meal and other
foods that people eat.
It must be culti-
vated very carefully,
so the weeds will not
grow. It must be
harvested before frost
comes.
There are about two million bushels of corn raised
in the United States every year. Corn is a native of
Mexico.

The Indians used it for food when America was
discovered. They buried it in the ground to keep it.
Maize is another name for it. Goldie Kelly. B5.

248

nmj^^^^^ V

^HIP^''

Child with Grain

IN VACATION AND TERM TIME

Cruciform Family
We all planted some member of this family. We
sold dozens of radishes from our beds. We planted
the cabbage turnip kale and candy tuft. We know
this family because its flower is the shape of a cross.
One little girl sold forty dozen radishes one morning.

Mildred Anderson B3.

Correlation of arithmetic and gardening work
is illustrated in the following account:
Northrup, King & Co.,
26, 28, 30 and 32 Hennepin Ave.,

Minneapolis, Minn., 5I22I09.
Sold to Maple Hill School Garden
Ship to Pierce School
Address City
Ship via Call

25 Capt. Jack Strawberry Plants. .$0 50

I 3 yr. old Wealthy apple tree ... 40

10 Raspberries Red 60

5 Black Cap 50

5 Blackberries Ancient Briton 50

The La France Set Roses 33

I Baby Rambler 12

I Minnesota Sorghum 10

I Broom Corn 10

50 Asparagus Roots 2 yrs 60

75 Celery plants 75

1 doz. Zyrian Rose Phlox i 50

Castor Oil Bean 5

2 pkts. Scarlet Sage 10

16 15
Elmer Anderson A8.
249

AMONG SCHOOL GARDENS

To avoid overlapping of v^ork, a school that
uses a garden for group work almost entirely
gives its kindergarten children several kinds
of seeds to plant and watch grow. The first
grade had radishes and nasturtiums; the second
lettuce and zinnias; the third had in the fall
indoor bulb planting and in the spring (the
garden season was April to June and September
to October) the planting of onions, peanuts and
beans. The children of this grade also made a
study of some flower, planting it as one member
of a group or family. As the children ranged
from five to sixteen years in age, the fourth
grade added transplanting to their work, and
took up, in the experimental plots, the study of
corn, wheat and oats. In the fifth grade cotton,
hemp and flax were grown to illustrate their
lessons in geography, while the sixth worked
with tree seedlings, the seventh with a wildflower
bed and made simple experiments with vege-
tables. The eighth took care of a decorative
border on this 200 x 25 foot garden, growing
both annuals and perennials.* This school had
500 home gardeners among its 600 children.

Variety of work may be secured by studying the
same subject from different points of view. An
exhaustive study of a plant is not suitable for the
lower grades. How corn grows and its conver-
sion into flour is interesting to young children.
Its pollination is a good study for several grades,

* Carroll Robbins School, Trenton, N. J.
250

IN VACATION AND TERM TIME

but its place as an economic grain in the world's
markets should come after some idea of geography,
of material resources, and of the inter-relation of
men and states has been obtained.

Another method is to use plants to illustrate
hygiene in the sixth grade and physics in the
seventh, adding in the eighth specialized studies
of the relations of plants and of their historic
and commercial value.

From these illustrations some generalizations
as to the adaptability of school gardening to the
different grades may be drawn. Children be-
low the fifth or even the sixth grade require very
simple garden operations unless they have been
gradually led up to the handling of fine seed
and the care of delicate plants. In small groups,
they will do well working together on class plots, —
do better gardening work, unless there is ample
time and the competent and thorough supervision
given to the individual plot culture which is always
the desideratum. Kindergarten children can be
effectively managed if each step of bulb or seed
planting is taken separately and required to be
completed by all before the class passes to the
next. Much of it, like the dropping of seed and the
placing of bulbs, can be done by the class in mili-
tary file. If a long straight board is used to
place over the freshly covered seeds, the children
marching on it may firm them down. The same
board may be used for the children to stand on
while making their furrows along its edge and while

251

AMONG SCHOOL GARDENS

dropping the seed, and so save a great deal of
trampling on the little gardens and some soiling
of shoes and clothes.

Little children should be given garden lessons
that deal with big seeds, bright colors and a
few of the very familiar and easily grown sturdy
plants. Their plots may vary from 2x2 feet
to 4 X 8 feet or they may each have very short

First Grade Children Learning the Names of the
Flowers, Pueblo, Col.

Strips of the class plot put under their special
care and watchfulness. Children from the sixth
grade up to fourteen years ought to have at least
4x8 feet beds, better still 5x10 feet and the
quicker^or more experienced 10 x 1 5 to 10 x 20 feet.
The latter size is a little large for one hour per week
of cultivation, but when a child may have more
time, though but once a week, such a plot can be

252

IN VACATION AND TERM TIME

well cared for. The lo x 15 feet is believed by
many experienced teachers to be fully as large as
the average child under fourteen can well manage
in the one, two or three periods per week usually
required.

The size of the individual plot, aside from con-
sideration of the area of the garden and the age
of the child, should be determined in part by the

DeWitt Clinton Park School Garden, New York

character of the work planned and by the quan-
tity of produce that will make gardening seem
worth while to the child, or even, in some places,
to the parents. They may in the summer time pre-
fer to have the children work at home or elsewhere
for a mere pittance in cash or even to gather coal
from the ash dump. Small plots will yield from
$2.50 to I5.00 worth of vegetables, not otherwise
obtainable by many poor families, and, if sold to

253

AMONG SCHOOL GARDENS

the home folks or neighbors, or at the market, are
an inducement to boys of well-to-do families to
sustained efforts in order to increase their spending
money or show what they can do. In the school
term, gardening is frequently offered in the fifth,
sixth and seventh grades and not in the eighth, as
there the children are often over-busy preparing
to meet the requirements necessary to pass to the
high school. Moreover, a large number of children
leave the schools about this grade, and gardening
should be taught them as soon as they can readily
handle the tools if they are to learn enough of it to
practice it for pleasure or to eke out a livelihood.

Allied to the school, the advantages that garden
work offers may be considered under eleven heads:

(i) The school garden is the source of the best
nature study material, intimately associated with
the child's daily life and which through owner-
ship of an individual plot may be one center of
his childish interests. The use of its materials
may be directed by the nature study course re-
quired by the school authorities, or it may con-
sist of any systematized treatment sufficient to
cover the special interest that the hour may
bring. Whatever the aim, the period should be
as free as possible from the exactions of routine
work. The child should feel his freedom and
rejoice in it, think and see for himself, and freely
speak of his observations and his conclusions.
He should be led to self-conviction of any that
are erroneous. Where it is possible to give the

254

IN VACATION AND TERM TIME

child his choice of seeds, it should be done either
from a limited list that seems large to him or so
freely that he may be told that he is to plant
anything he likes unless upon discussion he sees
his choice to be unwise and voluntarily relin-
quishes it. The following is a good list from
which selection may be made:

VEGETABLES*

String Bean

String Bean, Wax . .

Radish

Lettuce

Lettuce Plants

Beet

Swiss Chard

Onion

Onion Sets

Parsnip

Turnip

Celery Plants

Carrot

Parsley

Peas

FLOWERS

Phlox

Zinnia

Aster

Coxcomb . .
China Pinks
Calendula
Nasturtium

The child should have an opportunity for com-
plete self-expression. Whatever his leading motive
in his garden work it should be respected; should,
if necessary, be toned down (if the motive be
greed for gain or self interest of an unworthy
kind); should be guided, and used to open his
mind to other relations than those he at first sees.

* Fairview Garden list.
255

AMONG SCHOOL GARDENS

(2) The school garden in art work provides
problems in design, color, form, grouping and
composition; and studies of raw materials, such
as stuffs, dyes and paints.

(3) The school garden suggests topics for
language work whether in composition, spelling
or writing. It teaches appreciation of the best
literature and makes intelligible many of the
references in metaphor, and parable. It en-
riches the child's mind by bringing to his notice
some of the best stories, essays, and poems that
have been written.

(4) The school garden, in mathematical studies,
gives reality to principles which, except to the
mathematical mind, are vague and difficult to
grasp. It offers opportunities for practical work
in number, in elementary geometry, in surveying,
in all kinds of measuring and for many compu-
tations whether of the farm, the shop or the bank.
The solution of each of these problems carries
the child a step in advance and, unsolved, they
halt and baffle him in doing those things in which
he is vitally concerned.

(5) The school garden in physics and chemistry
also requires problems of number as well as ex-
planations of the natural forces and the laws by
which they govern the life or affect the labor that
belongs to the plant world.

(6) The school garden associates itself with
household or domestic science as the provider of
the raw material of food and textiles, and suggests

256

IN VACATION AND TERM TIME

the large relations of each whether geographical,
industrial, economic or social.

(7) In history the school garden has a less
prominent place, but it may be made to con-
tribute interest, if its plants have a story that
connects them with an old custom, the develop-
ment of the world's trade routes, the industrial
importance of nations or with the wars that they
precipitated.

(8) The school garden is industrial training.

(9) The school garden in manual training offers
a motive for making things for the garden, and
teaches helpfulness and economy by saving
money through the repair of tools and the making
of many garden accessories.*

(10) The school garden, whether conducted on
a small or a large scale, is elementary agriculture.
During the years when each child is asking about
everything he meets, the three questions, What is
it? What is it good for? Why is it? the garden will
hold his interest and serve as a concrete answer
when the teacher finds it impossible to make
ideas clear by words. It seems almost criminal
to let the child's curiosity go unanswered until
it develops into indifference to his surroundings
or into an increasing dislike of them because
he feels their monotony or drudgery. Apart

* Shrub, plant and pot label, cultivating stick, line and stakes,
cord winder, trellis (of different forms), flower-pot stand, garden
bench, sundial, barometer, \yeather vane, rain gauge, flats for seeds,
root cages, spreading boards and insect boxes, and even bird boxes
may be made.

257

AMONG SCHOOL GARDENS

from the question of agriculture, many a school
boy has found his best development through
the motor activities released and the motives
of action satisfied in the school garden. He may
be a dullard or a laggard at his books, perhaps
unsocial or unattractive in his personality. Let
him have a chance to vent his feelings by work,
or satisfy his dormant aesthetic, or emotional,

Fourth Grade Children Cutting Grain — Lakeview School,
Pueblo

nature through care of his plants. If he makes
any kind of a success of his garden, his self
respect is restored and he finds his place among his
fellows.

(ii) The school garden improves the school
by creating a strong social bond among the pupils
and between the school and the parents as the
home gardens develop. Here very often morals

258

IN VACATION AND TERM TIME

and civics have a more natural place than in
the prescribed school period for these studies.
Finally the school garden's call to study things
rather than books, to motor as well as intellectual
activity, follows the cry of all educational re-
formers. It answers the present day appeal for
an education that will educate for everyday
living; and supplies in miniature the conditions
which the child will soon be called upon to meet.
Thus armed to confront prejudice and to con-
quer by its worth, friends of the school garden
confidently expect its numbers to increase.

259

CHAPTER IX
SOME LAST THINGS

"The man who has planted a garden feels that he has done some-
thing for the good of the world. He belongs to the producers.
It is a pleasure to eat of the fruit of one's toil, if it be nothing more
than a head of lettuce or an ear of corn." — Charles Dudley Warner.

ATI ME comes in every garden, carried on
through the summer months, when interest
flags. Usually this happens in August. The
first joyous sense of proprietorship has quieted
down into a full assurance of ownership of crops
that are rapidly maturing. The weeds have been
pretty thoroughly discouraged or the plants seem
sturdy enough to hold their own against them.
The daily harvest may be offering only slight re-
turns outside of the now familiar supply of greens,
like Swiss chard, or pickings of late sown radish and
lettuce. It is still too early to plan for the day
when the little farmers will present their exhibits
at a county fair, a harvest home, or the annual
fete that should close the growing season of the
garden. It is the time when heat makes every
one sluggish and when the swimming pool is
especially dear; when ball games and picnics are
being planned by parents and children because

20 263

AMONG SCHOOL GARDENS

the summer is passing and vacation will soon be
over.

Then it is that teachers have anxious hours lest
the children's interest fail; then brother or sister,
cousin, friend or neighbor instead of the unpunc-
tual owner appears with the words, " Please where
is Benny's garden? I want to pick the stuff."
And further explanation of the absent one's non-
appearance follows which may or may not be
convincing. The stranger goes to work energeti-
cally with the surety of quick return for labor —
for is not the harvest at hand? He is probably
found doing exasperating and forbidden things,
and his lack of experience and skill has to be
guarded against. Moreover, why should he not
pick the vegetables first and make sure of his pay
for any amount of labor he may put upon the
little patch before the unusual effort in the sun
fags him? The other children have been trained
to the habit of first work, then pay, the cultiva-
tion of the plot and then its harvest, for that is the
rule of the garden that ensures systematized work,
easy supervision and an attractive appearance in
which all may take a pride as the result of their
joint labor.

When the children's interest flags, a gala time
should be planned to break the usual routine and
to compete with the less profitable excitements
that are pulling the children away from "organ-
ized recreation," — as one garden calls its work.
But in those gala days the children should be

264

SOME LAST THINGS

as much a conscious factor as in any holiday
outing.

If the children have become familiar with flower,
plant, weed and insect, with soil and the way it is
made from rock, a field excursion may be planned
to some good exploring ground, or better still
combined, if possible, with a visit to some histori-
cal site. A few playmates as guests of the entire
company increase the delight with which the
children enjoy making "fmds" and explaining
them. Apart from this counter attraction outside
the garden, there are others for which more active
preparation will be needed. By fete days, ex-
hibitions and harvest homes the children testify
to the value of school gardening, offering as evi-
dence the work of their hands, the output of their
gardens, and carefully worked out plans to enter-
tain their guests. They like so well to do the latter
that it is best to have several children at a time
take turns in acting as guides to visitors to the
garden. This gives a fine opportunity to develop
courtesy.

Not alone by their garden festivities do the
children show their approval of the school garden.
There are times when hard work unaccompanied
by prizes and plaudits is their testimony. Good
crops show careful preparation of soil and
cultivation, but do not necessarily tell how much
child labor and earnestness have gone into them.
In one city, the children cleared off seventeen
loads of rubbish in order to start their garden.

265

AMONG SCHOOL GARDENS

In a hot southern town, boys dug two 6x12 foot
holes to a depth of 2 feet and brought good soil
from a distance to fill them. On these two beds,
they grew beans, onions, lettuce and radishes so
successfully that the board of education purchased
a lot in which they were offered 1 1 square yards
for a garden. The plot was almost a plantation of
rocks. The lads, however, worked until they had
removed all and had sifted the soil for the garden.
The following Saturday fifteen boys worked all day,
some going dinnerless, to get their garden ready for
planting. A group of Philadelphia mill girls spend
their noon hour in the garden. Children of the
Seward School, Rochester, havegradually developed
a good scheme of school ground decoration from
the native material on the large open lot next the
school house. This is partially swampy, and has
supplied willows, ailanthus, elderberry, dogwood
and thorn apple for transplanting. Vines also were
obtained. Where temptation existed for pupils
to lean against shrubbery or to cut across the
lawn, they decided to plant a young thorn bush.
Their lawn was sown with grass seed sifted from
the dust of their fathers' hay mows.

A child gets profit and pleasure out of the gar-
den in direct proportion as he puts himself into
it, and inversely as the teacher does his work for
him. It is so much easier, under the guise of
showing a child how to use his tools, to do most
of the work on the small farms. The teacher
never, after the first lessons, should take the

266

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SOME LAST THINGS

child's tools into her hands a moment longer than
is required to show the correct hold and sweep
in working. That many are heart and soul in
their work is evident. Two boys astonished
parents and teachers by appearing regularly
at the garden, a mile or more from their homes
and laboring steadily and faithfully over their
plots when they had never before been known
willingly to do any kind of work. One of them
persisted in spite of a bad attack of ivy poison-
ing. Two small colored boys appeared in the
office of the industrial school which they were
attending and begged to be promoted from their
4x8 foot plots to the farm squad. They had
discovered pleasurewheremanyfmd only drudgery.
The boy who for four years got up often with the
sun, walked three miles to the Hartford School of
Horticulture, did his own work and hung around
all day begging for jobs, was at seventeen ready
to begin the slow reconstruction of a run-down
farm that his father bought for him near the city
and to which the family of six removed. One
small girl was so determined to have a garden
that she utilized old cooking utensils as hanging
baskets and suspended them from lines which she
willingly took down once a week because they in-
terfered with her mother's washing day. There
are stories innumerable — real ones — often mirth
provoking, often pathetic, often full of courage
and conquering persistence.

Children frequently express convictions of their
267

AMONG SCHOOL GARDENS

own about school gardens.* A little Cleve-

land girl confided to her teacher, " I did not
have St. Vitus dance this summer, nor last,
since I have worked in the school garden."

A Member of the "City Beautiful Club," Louisville

A helpless cripple, dragging about on hands and
knees, thought he had found heaven when he
discovered the pleasure there was in growing

* Some convincing opinions of educators may be found in
Appendix B, page 321.

268

SOME LAST THINGS

flowers. "Here I have found a joy in life," he
said. Later, as his infirmity grew upon him, he
learned to note the habits of insects and then to
mount them so well that he became self-support-
ing by the work. Children who start home gar-
dens frequently become enthusiasts. One eleven-
year-old boy would allow no one else to pick a
single flower in his garden, but he daily pro-
vided each member of his family with one of his
treasures. When two boys from three stocks of
rhubarb got enough for their mother to make
"many pies and thirty-three glasses of jelly and
five quarts of rhubarb preserves" they felt satis-
fied; they were proud because they had a goodly
yield of other vegetables, including ten bushels of
tomatoes from fifteen vines on a lo x 12 foot plot.
When a certain school garden had to be closed,
228 requests came asking that another might
be opened. Numbers of girls and boys, through
the garden have found the work they want to
do in life and have set themselves to mastering
its details. One child in her composition is
spokesman for many:

Why Do I Like to Work in the School Garden
We have great fun at the school garden every
morning about eight o'clock.

We enjoy the sun-shine and we don't mind if it
rains because it makes the plants grow.

I like to make and plant the beds and see the
things come up.

269

AMONG SCHOOL GARDENS

I like the sweet-peas the best because it makes a
pretty bouquet and is so fragrant.

We learned they belong to the pulse family, a very
useful family to us and the soil. We have learned
that peas and beans contain a proteid and carbohy-
drates for our food and that they make nitrogen for the
soil to make it rich to grow wheat and apples.

1 like to get the enemies out of the garden. We
have pulled thousands of weeds from the [garden].
Eva Soderberg. B6. Agei2yr.

The children of the very poor find working in a
garden preferable to sorting at the public dump,
hunting greens or minding babies at home.
They prefer to bring the little ones to the garden
and interest them in big brother's crops even
to the point where little brother helps. One lad,
not to be outdone, appeared one day with a bor-
rowed child, saying stoutly, "every other fellow
had a kid." The girls like mothering the chil-
dren where there are bright flowers and fresh
air and a shelter from the summer heat, finding
the garden a great improvement over the close
tenement or crowded doorstep. The gardeners
also like the commercial side of their work,
whether it comprises only the sale of 15 quarts of
beans to an Italian eating house or I25 worth of
produce, such as the 10 x 90 foot plots sometimes
yield. They like the money for necessities or for
pleasures, and best of all, for that most excellent
abiding sense of power and self support that it
brings.

270

SOME LAST THINGS

It is a happy time for the little farmers when the
products of the cherished plot weighed or meas-
ured, the results entered upon the day's diary, are
finally packed in basket, cart, or bag, and taken
home to be carefully cared for until eaten. All
this the children usually enjoy. Unless there is

A Welcome Guest at Fairview

space to encourage games and play in the garden,
the time when the daily harvest is cared for
becomes its social hour. Unconsciously, it is the
practice period in training the judgment to an
appreciation of standard vegetables, to a better
understanding in the future of the rules and regu-
lations laid down for competitive exhibits and

271

AMONG SCHOOL GARDENS

prize collections. An occasional word from the
instructor is the lead which will be followed by
children as they compare size, color, conformity
to standard type, appearance of vitality and the
desirable characteristics to be promoted by care-
ful selection of seed; as they contrast the weight
or measure of their respective crops, the careful-
ness with which the produce is cleansed or

Our Pumpkins — Lakeview School, Pueblo, Col.

bunched, and its attractiveness when ready for
home or market.

If bunched, flowers and vegetables should be
securely tied, but so loosely as not to look choked.
A practical object lesson in the aesthetic value of
grouping a few flowers, or in the beauty of a single
blossom, together with some suggestions of the
relation of color and form, or hints as to the ap-
propriateness of the receptacle which holds them,

272

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SOME LAST THINGS

should be given sometimes, even if there be no
insistence upon the children's following the sugges-
tions. Whether they do, or not, will depend in
some measure upon the class of children and their
homes. A single flower in a bottle may be more
beautiful than a tight bunch in a vase. Again,
the lesson in hygiene may be taught, not from the
standpoint of how cut flowers must be cared for,
to prevent the slime and bad smell of decaying stem
leafage, but from the desire to have the precious
flowers keep fresh as long as possible, and the
knowledge that clean-stripped stems will help
to this end.

The illustrations opposite pages 265, 187 and
273 show what children can do in the way of
harvesting and making exhibits. The first
gives a group of about 70 boys, or a little
less than a fourth of the lads in that particular
garden. The girls are not included because the
photograph was taken before 1909, at which time
the garden was doubled in size and the same num-
ber of girls admitted. The second illustration
shows flowers, while the one opposite this page
shows the vegetables raised by boys and girls in
a number of school yards, small vacant lots and
home grounds.

The exhibits at the Annual Exhibition of Chil-
dren's Gardens given in Boston by the Massa-
chusetts Horticultural Society prove that the sum
of 1 1 50 yearly distributed in prizes is well earned by
the school children of the Bay State. The western

273

AMONG SCHOOL GARDENS

States at town, county and state fairs call upon
their children to make these occasions successful
affairs and are loyally answered. In the Bowery
district of New York, in the crowded Bohemian
quarter of a western city, in rural schools, and
from city back gardens, children respond to the
call for a flower show or harvest home. One school
garden in the foreign section of a large city has
for several years taken first prize against all
competitors. In another school the noise of the
street was left behind, as issuing from a dark
hall-way the visitor sauntered through aisles made
by green branches of shrubs and trees brought from
the nature tramps near Greater New York. Here
could be seen creditable flowers and vegetables
raised by indefatigable children in a tiny school
garden plot; also a few butterflies and their
breeding cages; a wasps' nest brought from the
country; a bit of aquarian and swamp life; and
a collection of native and foreign nuts. These
were concisely, often drolly, ticketed by the chil-
dren themselves with explanatory label or para-
graph. Much of this work belonged in the nature
study course of the school, but the little garden
had given greater zest and understanding to it.
There is another city school which numbers 2400
pupils, almost all from within two city blocks, and
all from within five, where careful systematic
questioning brought out the fact that only a
thousand had ever seen a tree. To these children,
a school garden was given for the two seasons

274

SOME LAST THINGS

between the tearing down of an old building and
the building of a new. The garden made clear to
them what seeds and plants really do, and, one
season, a hen and five little chicks were an
added source of wonder and delight.

It is possible to overemphasize the requirement
that a school garden should show excellent results
in gardening. But the truth that the develop-
ment of the child is more important than the
successful cultivation of the plants is one that may
defeat itself in large measure if we fail to remem-
ber two things; one, that the opportunity to have
any school garden at all another year may depend
upon the attitude of those who see it from a utili-
tarian or aesthetic standpoint; and another, that
a goodly number of the qualities and habits which
the school garden is to cultivate in the child are not
taught by untidiness, carelessness, sickly-looking
plants, spindling harvests and their consequent
discouraging effect upon the child. Kept within
limitations of size in area, of suitability in plants
and of the right amount of labor among children,
any garden should present a reasonable appearance
of success and owes it to the neighborhood and to
the children to do so. An intelligent supervision
that will compel a high standard of excellence is of
the first importance. So shall new school garden
ventures be encouraged, difficult ones made to seem
worth while, the beauty of well ordered life and the
interrelation of its laws be made more apparent to
the minds of children while they spend fruitful
hours in the enjoyment of their gardens.

21 275

APPENDICES

APPENDIX A

NOTE I, PAGE 8

There had been gardens as schools of horticulture
for boys of noble birth, as in Persia, in ancient times.
But during the Middle Ages, love of beauty and
curiosity rather than a love for accurate knowledge,
led the Italians to gather into gardens the new and
curious plants which travelers, at the time of the
revival of learning, began to bring into Italy from all
parts of Europe and Asia (later from America) ; to
plant those medigeval "observation plots" of which
today the Island of Isola Bella in Lake Maggiore is an
excellent example, where the tall cedars of Lebanon
still flourish as when brought from their native Syria.
The thirst for knowledge that seized upon Italy in-
creased the number of horticulturists and embryo
botanists. In 1525, a wealthy nobleman, one Caspar
de Gabriel, laid out a botanical garden on a large
scale in Tuscany, and, within a comparatively few
decades, all the leading cities of Italy and also many of
the universities of France and Spain followed this
example. Among the scholars visiting the univer-
sities, there were a few who had a definite and earnest
purpose in the use of the gardens. They desired a
scientific substructure for the crude and chaotic mass
of facts, observations and records then called botany.
But the general interest in the mediaeval "observation

279

AMONG SCHOOL GARDENS

plots" was comparable to that of children's delight
over some odd flower or leaf and their satisfaction
at being told its purpose for use or ornament, it is
a fact that the celebrated Jardin des Plantes, founded
in Paris in 1626, was established for no better purpose
than the expressed intention of furnishing new motifs,
new floral designs for the embroideries upon the coats
and gowns to be worn at the sumptuous court of the
Medici. For this purpose, the Jesuit Fathers in far
away Canada and the Mississippi valley, were bidden
to make a careful report of the flowers they met, and,
when possible, to send specimens to France.

About the beginning of the seventeenth century,
the German universities started their botanical gar-
dens and began the earnest search for a few under-
lying principles that should bind together all the
seemingly unrelated forms in the vegetable kingdom.
In 1735 Linnaeus, the father of modern botany and
of the Linnean "artificial system" of classifying plants,
a system in use for many years,* in his "Systema
Naturae" framed the first rough chart and forged the
key to the mysteries of flower and fruit and growing
things. A little later, in 1789, De Jussien in his
"Genera of Plants According to Natural Orders"
founded the botanical system in use today.

Broadly speaking, agricultural knowledge was differ-
entiated by the university into botany or medicine
both of which were taught within its walls, and into
practical farming, carried on by the monks and peasants.

* Loudon's Encyclopedia of Plants, published by Longmans,
Green & Co., London, 1880, a volume of over a thousand pages and
several thousand cuts, has its first section arranged after the Linnean
system.

280

APPENDICES

To the learned, botany was a studious pleasure; to
the monk, the tilling of the ground was a worthy
humiliation. Thus, to the average mind, agriculture
was a necessary labor but fitted only for monks, slaves
and peasants. Yet, as early as 1695, August Francke
of Halle, Germany, discerned the educational value
of a garden in connection with his orphanage. He
was far ahead of his time. For many generations the
educative value of garden work for children was re-
garded as the idle prating of philanthropists and edu-
cators like Salzman and Comenius, like Rousseau and
Pestalozzi. The last named gave a concrete example
of its worth by insisting upon field and garden practice
as a part of his boys' and girls' daily tasks. Froebel
founding his kindergarten in 1840, advised gardens "as
a true school of happy occupations."

NOTE 2, PAGE 18

Any Rural School Board or any School Board in a
village that shall (i) provide a school garden of at
least one-quarter of an acre in addition to the regular
school ground area, adjacent to or convenient to the
school; that shall (2) provide the necessary tools, im-
plements and other requisites, and shelter for them; and
also (3) one legally qualified teacher, shall be entitled
to an initial grant not exceeding one hundred dollars,
and a subsequent grant of twenty dollars out of any
grant made for Elementary Agriculture and Horticulture
by the Legislature, to be "expended in caring for such
School Gardens, and for keeping the school grounds in
proper condition." "Should the sum voted by the
Legislature not be sufficient to pay in full the grants
on the foregoing basis, the Educational Department

AMONG SCHOOL GARDENS

will make a pro rata distribution on the sum voted."
If the instruction given be approved by the Inspector,
said instructor shall be entitled in addition to the
regular salary to a grant of ^30 per year. (Circular No.
13, July, 1909, issued by the Legislative Assembly of
Ontario, p. 5.)

NOTE 3, PAGE 58

BOTANICAL GARDEN*

ROSEDALE SCHOOL GARDEN, CLEVELAND, OHIO, 1907

Spermatophytes

Angiosperms

Monocotyledons
Order Family Order Family

Gramineae Grass Smilaces Smilax

Cyperaces Sedge Amarillidaceae . . . .Amarillis

Araceae Arum Iridaceas Iris

Liliaceae Lily Orchidaceae Orchid

Convallariaces . . .Lily of the
Valley

Dicotyledons
Order Family Order Family

Urticaces Nettle Papaveraceae Poppy

Aristolochiace^e . . Birthwort Cruciferae Mustard

Polygonaceae Buckwheat Resedaces Mignonette

Chenopodiacea; . . .Goosefoot Sarraceniace^ Pitcher Plant

Amarantaceae Amaranth Droseraces Sundew

Phytolaccaceae . . .Pokeweed Crassulaceie Orpine

Nyctaginaceae .... Four-o'clock Saxifragaceae Saxifrage

Portulacaces Purslane Rosaceae Rose

Caryophyllaceae . . Pink [ Mimosa

RanunculaceiE . . .Crowfoot Leguminosae . . . < Senna

Berberidaces Barberry ( Pea

* Notice how all these families can be shown by typical plants that
are common enough to be within easy reach.

Vegetable garden at Rosedale teaches succession of crops; flower
garden orderly arrangement, harmonious color effects and succession
of bloom; botanical, plant families and economic significance.

List by courtesy of Miss Louise Klein Miller.

282

APPENDICES

Order Family

( Geranium
Geraniacea; . . . . \ Wood-sorrel
( Jewel-weed

Linaceae Flax

Polygalacea Milkwort

Euphorbiacex . . . .Spurge

Malvace.^ Mallow

Hypericaces St. John's

Wort

Violaceas Violet

Cactaces Cactus

Lythraceas Loosestrife

Onagraceae Evening

Primrose

Araliaceae Ginseng

Umbelliferae Carrot

Primulaceae Primrose

Gentianaceae Gentian

Apocynaceae Dogbane

AsclepiadaccE . . . .Milkweed

Order Family

Convolvulaceae . . . Morning

Glory
Polemoniaceas .... Phlox

Boraginaceae Borage

Verbenaces Verbena

Labiata Mint

Solanaces Nightshade

Scrophulariacese . . Figwort
Bignoniace.e Trumpet

Creeper
Plantaginace.ie. . . . Plantain

Rubiaceas Madder

Valerianacea? Valerian

Dipsace.-e Teasel

Cucurbitaceae Gourd

Campanulaceae. . . . Bellflower

i Chicory
Ragweed
Thistle

NOTE 4, PAGE 71

A seed grain competition was carried on by boys on
farms all over Canada from the Atlantic to the Pacific.
The main purpose was to improve crops by the use of
seed improved by selection. Dr. Robertson will best
tell the story:

"In the summer of 1899 I put aside |ioo — my
own money, not public funds — to offer in prizes to
Canadian boys and girls who would send me the
largest heads from the most vigorous plants of wheat
and oats on their fathers' farms. I had a wonderful
response, and I paid that money in prizes with as
much enjoyment as any money I ever spent. The
letters I got from farmers, and from their boys and
girls, were so encouraging that in the following winter
I went to Sir William C. Macdonald and said: 'Here is
a great chance to do some educational work in progres-

283

AMONG SCHOOL GARDENS

sive agriculture.' ... I told him I would like to
have him give me 1 10,000 for prizes to set this thing
going and to keep it up for three years. He pro-
vided the money with all good will, and my little |ioo
came back a hundred fold. The prizes were offered
to boys and girls to encourage selecting the largest
heads of the most vigorous plants and growing seed
from those heads on a plot by itself. There was a
yearly competition for every province; and a main
competition extending over three years. Any boy
or girl living on a Canadian farm, who was under
eighteen years of age, could enter as a competitor.
In each province ten prizes were offered for oats and
ten for wheat, the prizes in the yearly competition
ranging from I25 for the first down to $5 for the
tenth. Over fifteen hundred entries were received,
of whom eight hundred satisfactorily completed their
first year's work, and four hundred and fifty com-
pleted the three years' course.

"The competitor was required to pick by hand the
largest heads from the most vigorous and productive
plants in sufficient quantity to obtain seed with
which to sow a quarter of an acre of ground, which
became the stock seed grain plot, now called the
hand-selected seed plot. Before the crop of this
quarter of an acre was harvested, the competitor
again selected the largest heads from the most vigorous
plants in sufficient quantity to sow the quarter of an
acre, which became the hand-selected seed plot for
the following year. Out of the heads selected each
year the competitor sent to me at Ottawa one hun-
dred of the largest. A careful record was kept of
the number of grains per hundred heads, and also of

284

APPENDICES

the weight per hundred. From 1900 to 1903, the
average increase in all Canada for spring wheat was 18
per cent in the number of grains per hundred heads,
and 28 per cent in the weight. F"or oats the in-
crease was 19 per cent in the number of grains, and
28 per cent in their weight. . . .

"The main competition was based on the yields
from those hand-selected seed plots. The competi-
tors had to select annually out of these, from the most
vigorous plants bearing the largest heads, 35 pounds
of oat heads or 50 pounds of wheat heads. In this
competition we paid 174 prizes, amounting to $5,425;
so that altogether we paid $10,842 in prizes. The
sum which Sir William C. Macdonald put into the
bank, with the interest, brought me out square, plus
a great deal of valuable information, plus much
happiness in administering the work." — Robertson, J.
W. : Education for Rural Life in Canada.

NOTE 5, PAGE 71

In 1908 The Ontario Agricultural and Experi-
mental Union instituted a Schools' Division with the
general aim of adapting the work of the Union "to
suit the capacities of school children and to organize
it in such a way that teachers would be encouraged to
direct the children in it and to use the many experi-
ences arising in the practical work as a means of
education in the school." This new plan aimed to
bring the work directly io the schools and make it dis-
tinctly for the schools.

The work was divided into The Children's Garden-
ing Section and The Schools' Experiment Section.
One sent packets of seed to the children for their

285

AMONG SCHOOL GARDENS

school or home gardens; the other offered seeds free
for four observation plots in the school garden or in
adjoining fields. There was to be a plot showing
seven different species of wheat (agriculture); one
growing different maples (forestry) ; one with different
kinds of onions (horticulture) ; and a plot to show
different kinds of nasturtiums (floriculture). One hun-
dred and sixteen schools, 1 50 teachers entered on the
work and returns were made by 48 per cent of them
The work has thoroughly recommended itself by
its good effect on the school discipline, and in bring-
ing home and school together. Another year seeds
will be sold to the children. Tree seeds and a special
collection of vines will also be offered, and printed
instructions will be given them as well as the teachers.
— From advance sheets of Report of Schools' Division
of Agricultural and Experimental Union. By courtesy
of Prof. S. B. McCready.

NOTE 6, PAGE 73
"At the Macdonald school gardens children are to
be taught three important matters in connection with
agriculture; namely, the selection of seed, the rotation
of crops, and their protection against blight and dis-
ease. In six of the gardens the experiment of grow-
ing two plots of potatoes side by side, spraying one
not at all and the other three to five times in the course
of the season, gave in the treated plots a gain in har-
vest as follows: Knowlton, Que., iii per cent; Rich-
mond, Ont., 100 per cent; Carp, Ont., 85 per cent;
March, Ont., 81 per cent; Guelph, Ont., 43 per cent;
Brome, Que., 41 per cent." — Robertson, J. W. : Educa-
tion for Agriculture, page 5.

286

APPENDICES

NOTE 7, PAGE 107

PLANTS FOR ALL SORTS OF SOIL AND ALL KINDS OF
GARDENS

The letters in parenthesis give hints as to duration of each plant
as follows: (A) annual herb; (P) perennial herb; (S) shrub; (T)
tree; (B) bulb; (V) vine.

Flowers for Drifting Sands

Rose moss .... Portulaca grandi- Spurrey Spergula arvensis

flora (A) (A)

Sacaline Polygonum Sa- St. John's-wort Hypericum pro-

chalinense (P) lificum (S)

Sunflower Helianthus spp. Swallow thorn. Hippophae rham-

(A and P) noides (S)
Sand Cherry. . . Prunuspumila(S)

Flowers for Heavy Clay

Forget-me-not .Myosotis palus- Zinnia Zinnia elegans

tris (P) (A)

Columbine ... .Aquilegia spp. Lilac Syringa vulgaris

(P) (S)

Gas plant Dictamnus albus Rose of Sharon Hibiscus Syriacus

(P) (S)

Sweet pea Lathyrus odora- Shrubby cin-

tus (A) qutfoil Potentilla fruti-

cosa (S)

Flowers for the Seashore

Coboea scandens (A) Swallow thorn Hippophae rham-

Nasturtium.. .Tropsolum spp. noides (S)

(A) Tamarisk TamarixChinensis

Portulaca .... Portulaca grandi- Poppy-mallow Callirhoe involu-

flora (A) crata, var. li-

Zinnia Zinnia elegans (A) neariloba

Red bearberry Arctostaphylos Sacaline Polygonum Sach-

uva ursi (S) alinense (P)

Sand Cherry. . Prunus pumila Sunflower. . . . Helianthus spp.

(S) (P)

Flowers for the Rock Garden

Baby's breath. Gypsophila spp. Rock-cress . . . . Aubrietia del-

(A and P) toidea (P)

Bluebells Campanula ro- Moss pink Phlox subulata

tundifolia (P) (P)

Carpathian Daphne Daphne Cneorum

harebell Campanula Car- (S)

patica (P)

287

AMONG SCHOOL GARDENS

Flowers for the Rock Garden (Continued)

Saxifrage Saxifraga spp. (A Crowberry .... Empetrum ni-

and P) grum (S)

Creeping bar- Mountain lau-

berry Berberis re pens rel Kaimia latifoiia

(S) (S)

Flowers for Ponds and Water Gardens

Arrowhead. .. .Sagittaria spp.

(P)
Floating heart . Limnanthemum

lacunosum (P)
American lotus Nelumbo iutea

(P)

Cape pond-
weed Aponogeton dis-

tachyum (P)
Water-hiy Nymphjea spp.

(P)
Pickerel-weed . Pontederia spp.

(P)

Flowers for the Bog Garden

Cardinal flower Lobelia cardi-

nalis (P)
Sundew Drosera filiformis

(P)
Spice bush .... Benzoin odorifer-

um (S)
Virginian wil-
low Itea Virginica (S)

Iris Iris laevigata (P)

Crowfoot Ranunculus spp.

(P)

Joe-Pye-weed . Eupatoriuni pur-
pureum (P)

Pitcher plant. .Sarracenia pur-
purea (P)

California pit-
cher plant. . . DarlingtoniaCali-
fornica (P)

White alder . . .Clethra alnifolia
(S)

Flowers for Cold Climates
(The perennials are hardy at Ottawa)

Golden tuft . . . Alyssum saxatile Sheepberry. . . .Viburnum

(P)
Iceland poppy . Papaver nudi-

caule (P)

Marigold Tagetes spp. (A)

Pansy Viola tricolor (A)

Sweet pea Lathyrus odora-

tus (A)
English daisy. . Bellis perennis(P)

Len-

tago (S)
Saxifrage Saxifraga spp.

(P)
Buttonbush . . .Cephalanthus oc-

cidentalis (S)

Daphne Mezereum (S)

St. John's-wort Hypericum Kal-

mianum (S)

Flowers for Hot Climates
(e. g., Tampa, Florida)

Coneflower Rudbeckia hirta Funkia spp. (P)

(P) Iris Japonica (P)
Gunnera manicata (P) Weigelia Diervilla spp. (S)

APPENDICES

Flowers for Hot
Carolina all-
spice Calycanthus

floridus (S)

Rose moss Portulaca grandi-

flora (A)
Morning-glory Ipomoea pur-
purea (A)

Flowers that Blossom

Daphne Mezereum

Golden bell. . . . Forsythia sus-

pensa (S)
Shadbush Ameianchier

Canadensis (T)
Glory-of-t he-
snow Chionodoxa Lu-

ciiiae (B)
Japanese

quince Cydonia Japon-

ica (S)
Judas tree Cercis Canadensis

(T)
Snowdrop Galanthus nivalis

(B)

Flowers that will Blossom

Gailiardia aristata (?)

Goldenrod Solidago spp. (P)

Iceland poppy . Papaver nudi-

caule (P)
Goldentuft ....Aiyssum saxatile

(P)
Ten-weeks

stocks Matthiola incana,

var. annua (A)

Climates {Continued)
American ca-
mellia Stuartia pen-

tagyna (A)

Amaranth Amarantus spp.

(A)
Nasturtium . . .Tropasolum spp.
(A)

BEFORE Trees are Leafy

Bluebells Mertensia pul-

monarioides

(P)
Hyacinth Hyacinthus ori-

entalis (B)

Crocus Crocus spp. (B)

Anemone blanda (P)
Magnolia Yulan (T)
Red Maple . . . .Acer rubrum (T)
Candytuft Iberis sempervi-

rens (P)
English daisy. . Bellis perennis

(P)

AFTER Frost in the Autumn

Sweet aiyssum. Aiyssum mari-
timum (A)

Candytuft Iberis spp. (A)

Phlox Drummondii (A)
Clarkia elegans (A)
Chrysanthe-
mum spp. (P)

Plants for Window-Boxes, Vases, Hanging-Baskets, etc.

Artillery plant. Pilea serpyllifolia

Aiyssum spp. (A)

Little pickles. .Othonna Capen-

sis (P)
Dwarf nastur-
tium Tropaeolum spp.

(A)
Periwinkle. . . . Vinca major (P)
German ivy .. .Senecio mikani-

oides

Wandering
Jew Zebrina pendula

(P)
Lobelia Erinus (A)
Centaurea cineraria (A)

Coleus spp. (A)

Geranium Pelargonium spp.

(A)
Helichrysum petiolatum (P)

AMONG SCHOOL GARDENS

Flowers for the Wild Garden

(A) Choice wild flowers which should not be taken from the woods
even for garden purposes and which, if ordered from dealers, should
be nursery-grown, not collected:

Native orchids, especially lady's Fringed gen-
slippers tian Gentiana crinita

Mountain lau- (P)

rel Kalmia latifolia Giant laurel . . Rhododendron

Trailing arbu- maximum (S)

tus Epig2earepens(P)

(B) Common wild flowers that improve greatly in cultivation and
are easy to grow. These are in no danger of extermination:

Yarrow Achillea Millefo- Oswego tea. ... Monarda didyma

Hum (?)

Joe-Pye-weed .Eupatorium pur- Asters and gold-

pureum (P) enrods

Bugbane Cimicifuga race- Button snake-

mosa (P) root Eupatorium ag-

eratoides (P)

Flowers for the Desert Garden

The following have withstood twenty degrees below zero, F
Good drainage in winter is essential.

Yucca filamentosa Opuntia Camanchica

Yucca glauca (angustifolia) Opuntia Camanchica, var. gi-

Mammillaria Missouriensis gantea

Mammillaria vivipara Opuntia fragilis

Echinocereus viridiflorus Opuntia mesacantha, vars.

Echinocactus Simpsoni Greenii cymochila, macrorhiza
Echinocactus Simpsoni, var. Opuntia pha?acantha, var. major

minor Opuntia polyantha, vars. albis-

Opuntia arenaria pina and Watsoni
Opuntia arborescens

Vines for City Walls and Porches

Boston ivy. . . . Ampelopsis tri- Ampelopsis Veitchii

cuspidata Trumpet creep-
English ivy Hedera Helix er Tecoma radicans

Virginia creep- Clematis spp.

er Ampelopsis quin- Actinidia arguta

quefolia Akebia quinata
Dutchman's Wistaria Chin-
pipe Aristolochia mac- ensis

rophylla Lonicera Japon-
ica

290

APPENDICES

Flowering Shrubs for Hedges

Tartarian hon- *California Priv-

eysuckle Lonicera Tartar- et Ligustrum ovali-

ica folium

*Japanese Deutzia gracilis

quince Cydonia Japon- *Common bar-

ica berry Berberis vulgaris

Cockspur (Purple-leaved

thorn Crataegus Crus- barberry)

galli *Rose of Sharon
Thunberg's or Althaea ... Hibiscus Syria-
barberry. ... Berberis Thun- cus.
bergii Viburnum spp.
Spiraea pruni- Japan ever-
foiia green honey-
suckle Lonicera J apon-

ica

Trailers and Ground Covers

Creeping Char-
lie Lysimachia num-

muiaria
Japanese hon-
eysuckle .... Lonicera Japon-
ica
English ivy. . . . Hedera Helix
Bitter-sweet. . .Celastrus scan-
dens

Perennial pea .Lathyrus latifo-

lius
Virgin's bower. Clematis Virgini-

ana
Rosa rugosa

Periwinkle . . . . Vinca minor
Mitchella
repens

Vines Requiring Support

Wistaria Chin-

ensis
Dutchman's

pipe Aristolochia mac-

rophylla
Morning-glory Ipomoea pur-
purea
Scarlet runner

bean Phaseolus multi-

florus
Japanese hop. . Humulus Japoni-
cus, van varie-
gatus
Clematis spp.

Ampelopsis

Veitchii
Balloon vine .

Boston ivy. .

English ivy. .
Trumpet

creeper. . . .
Bitter-sweet.

Honeysuckles
(climbing
species). . . .

. Cardiospermum
Halimac-caca-
bum

.Ampelopsis tri-
cuspidata

. Hedera Helix

. Tecoma radicans
.Celastrus scan-
dens

Akebia quinata

291

AMONG SCHOOL GARDENS

Flowers for "Garden Effects"

Fox-glove Digitalis pur- Gladiolus Gladiolus spp.

purea (P) (B)

Sweet-william , Dianthus bar- Spiraea spring-blooming

batus (P) species (S)

Goldenrod Solidago spp. (P) Geranium Pelargonium spp.

China aster. .. .Callistephus hor- (A)

tensis (A) Alyssum spp.
Japanese (A) (P)

quince Cydonia Japon- Deutzia spp.

ica (S) (S)

Japanese Iris .. Iris laevigata (P) Dutch hya-

Tulip Tulipa spp. (B) cinth Hyacinthus ori-

entalis (B)

The above list, except for three additions, is as it appeared in
"Country Life," March, 1Q04, and is repeated here by express permis-
sion of Doubleday, Page and Company, New York.

NOTE 8, PAGE 134
Vegetable Seeds

I peck improved variety of potatoes; i lb. beans, 2 varieties;

1 lb. sugar corn, 2 varieties; i lb. beets, 2 varieties; i oz. carrots,

2 varieties; 5 oz. seed onion, 2 varieties; 2 oz. radish, 2 varieties;
I oz. lettuce, 2 varieties; i oz. parsnip; i oz. turnip; i pkt. cucum-
ber; I pkt. cress; i pkt. kale; i pkt. kohl rabi; i pkt. summer
savory; i pkt. sage.

The following to be started in a hot bed or window box; i pkt.
cauliflower; i pkt. Brussels sprouts; 1 pkt. celery; 3 pkts. cabbage,

3 varieties; 3 pkts. tomato, 3 varieties. Estimated cost, |2.

Flowering Annuals

To be started indoors or in hot bed: 3 pkts. aster, mixed or 3
named varieties; 2 pkts. balsams, mixed; 2 pkts. dianthus (pinks);
I pkt. pansy; i pkt. petunia; i pkt. portulaca; 2 pkts. phlox
Drummondi grandiflora; i pkt. Ricinus (Castor bean); i pkt.
scarlet sage; i pkt. salpiglossis; i pkt. sweet scabious; i pkt.
ten-weeks stocks; i pkt. verbena.

For open planting: ^ oz. sweet alyssum: J oz. candytuft; ^ oz.
mignonette; 2 pkts. dwarf nasturtium; 2 pkts. Eschscholtzia
(California poppy); 2 pkts. Shirley poppy; 1 pkt. double mixed
poppy; I pkt. tall nasturtium; i pkt. mixed sweet peas; 1 pkt.
double hollyhock (biennial); i pkt. Russian sunflower. Estimated
cost |2. . .

From Circular No. 13, July, iqoq, Elementary Agriculture and Hor-
ticulture and School Gardens. Toronto, iqoq.

2Q2

APPENDICES

NOTE 9, PAGE 152
EXPERIMENTAL PLOTS IN PHILADELPHIA GARDENS
Crops Grown for Subterranean Parts
Root Crop Tuber Crop Bulb Crop

Beet Radish Potato Onion

Carrot Salsify Sweet potato

Parsnip Turnip

Crops Grown for Foliage Parts
Cole Crops Salad Crops

Kale Brussel Sprouts Lettuce

Cabbage Kohl Rabi Endive

Crops Grown for Fruit or Seed Parts
Pulse Crop Solanaceous Crop Ciicurbitaceous or Vine Crop

Bean Tomato Cucumber Pumpkin

Pea Egg plant Melon Squash

Pepper

293

AMONG SCHOOL GARDENS

NOTE 10, PAGE 162*
PLANTING SCHEME FOR SCHOOL GARDEN
Courtesy of E. K. Thomas, Providence, R. L

Ft.

Crop

Depth to
Plant

Average time of
Growth

Distance Apart
in row

Corn, Squan-
tum li ft.

2" to ai"

13 weeks

Plant 4* apart,
thin to 8"

Lettuce
lift.

Corn, Early
Cory lift.

2" to 2V

6-8 weeks
1 1 weeks

Hills 6" apart
Same as above

SJ1

Lettuce
lift.

6-8 weeks

Same as above

Tomatoes
lift.

Plants

16 weeks

Plants 18" apart

Turnip, Early
lift.

|"to 1"

c; weeks

In drills

Tomatoes
lift.

Plants

16 weeks

Peas
lift.

2" to 3" apart

Cabbage
lift.

Peas
lift.

Plants
2"

18 weeks
Q weeks

Plants 2 ft. apart

Potatoes
I ft.

Radish
I ft.

2" to 2\''

1 5 weeks

Sets 6"

SJ1

Beans
lift.

9 weeks

6" to 8" apart

00
0

Beans
lift.

Carrots

|ft.

Radish
I ft.

Y to I*

16-20 weeks

6" to 8" apart
In drills

Beets

I in.

9 weeks

In drills

*See also Note 17a and 17b

294

SIIOWINC. II

AN OUTLINE IN GARDEN STUDY I

II- KM AIION 111 l»l-EN GAUDIrN WOKK AND THE OTHliU SUBJECTS OF THE Plfl^Rl

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295

AMONG SCHOOL GARDENS

NOTE 13, PAGE IQ2

PLANTING, PRICKING OUT, TRANSPLANTING AND
POTTING

Planting Seeds in Flats. — At the florists, earthen
seed-pans can be bought or wooden boxes called flats.
The first are expensive; the second can be easily
made by teacher, by pupils in manual training class
or by almost any child, from the pine boxes so largely
used for packing canned goods, soaps, etc. These
can be bought for five or ten cents apiece, and are
sometimes given away. These boxes are usually 9 or
10 inches deep and can be cut in 3 inch sections with a
rip saw. The top and bottom make two flats. The
middle sections of two or three boxes put together
will make another flat. Bore a number of i inch
auger holes in the bottom of each flat for drainage.

Soil: The flat may be filled with earth in the pres-
ence of the children so that they may see how thor-
oughly the soil should be prepared. From two boxes
or piles, one of rich soil, the other of sand, take three
parts sand and one part soil, and with the hands or a
scoop (better hands) thoroughly mix them. Then,
using an ordinary flour sieve, sift the mixture through
it. First put into the flat a layer of broken flower
pots, cinders or small stones, explaining that this is
done so as to give good drainage and to prevent
the water from settling into little pools and causing
the seeds to rot or the soil to mould or become sour.
Over the layer of broken stuff, spread the coarse
screenings from the earth just mixed until the flat
is about half full. Then add the finely sifted soil.
See to it that the soil is pushed well into the corners

296

APPENDICES

and up to the edges so as to avoid the danger of the
washing out of seeds. This may be done with a flat
piece of wood or brick or "float." The florist's float,
with which he compacts the soil in his hot bed, green-
house or cold frame, is a piece of board 6 inches wide
by 9 or lo long with a handle attached. Another
reason for compacting the soil about seeds or roots
is to bring close to them the fine particles of food
in the soil and the invisible little films of moisture
that must cover the food grains and dissolve them
before the plant can feed upon them. Consequently,
while the soil in the box must be fine and soft for the
little plants, it must lie more closely together than
if just thrown into the box, and so it must be "firmed"
or pressed close to the edges and into corners, and the
box filled as full as it will hold. If then the whole
surface is gently pressed, there will still be room for
the planting of all seed. Tiny seeds must be sown
broadcast. Small seeds are better in rows where any
irregularity in their coming up will show the relative
value or quality of the seed. With a pointed stick
scratch the lines for the seed rows or make a furrow
say from i inch deep for seeds the size of a grain of
wheat to two inches for those as large as the bean.
While individual characteristics of seeds modify the
depth to plant, there is a general rule that seeds under
artificial conditions of planting should be put in the
ground to a depth equal to their greatest diameter,
and that, when planted in the open, the depth should
be four times their diameter. Moderate size seeds
should lie one-half inch apart. In all cases after
sowing, the seeds should be covered with a layer of
fine soil, and firmed. Those in flats should then be

297

AMONG SCHOOL GARDENS

watered very carefully so as not to dislodge them.
One may sink the flat in water and leave it until
moisture appears upon the surface of the soil. One
may water with a fine spray directly, or upon a layer
of thin porous paper, like tissue or newspaper. With a
greenhouse, the flats may be placed under the benches,
for the desirable thing is darkness, moderate warmth
and moisture until the little heads break through the
earth. Avoid too much wetness and gradually ac-
custom the baby plants to the strong sunshine or
they will damp off, rot at the surface of the soil and
wither even more quickly than if allowed to perish
for want of water. Greenhouse warmth is desirable
because bottom heat draws moisture down to the
forming roots while top heat tends to rapid evaporation
and consequent drying out. Label and Date. It is
better to have a uniform place for placing the label
and to put on it date of planting, name of plant and
the children's initials when they do the work them-
selves.

Pricking out Seedlings. — When the little plants have
put forth their first or second leaves and perhaps have
become too crowded, or when they have grown larger
and it is still too cold to plant them out of doors, or
when there are not a sufficient number of small flower
pots for transplanting them, it will be necessary to
"prick out the seedlings."

Soil: The same as for seedlings and the flats filled
in like manner. When moving the plants do not
attempt to take them out one by one, but first wet
the soil, then very carefully run the point of a trowel
or a flat pointed stick down the side of the flat until
it is below the roots. Take up an inch or two of earth

298

APPENDICES

(if the seedlings be from seed sown broadcast) or a
larger portion if they are in rows. Lay these on a
board in a shaded place; carefully separate each plant
and gently shake the earth from each before replant-
ing it.

Resetting: Begin at the left-hand corner of the
frtshly filled flat, the corner farthest from you, and
with your finger or a dibble make a hole deep enough
to drop in the full length of the roots of the seedling
so as to have it stand upright when transplanted and
at a little lower depth in the earth than in its previous
home. Firm the soil around the roots and stem.
Set the plants about two inches apart, keeping the
rows straight. Label. Sprinkle well and set away
out of the sun until the plant has had time to estab-
lish itself; most plants will do this in twenty-four
hours or a little longer. A small dibble can easily be
shaped from a clothespin ; one of larger size for out-
door planting from the end of a broom handle or the
handle of a broken garden tool; if such tool has a
handle, as an old spade, leave on for greater comfort
in using.

Potting Seedlings. — Soil: When the time comes for
potting, the plant has become strong enough to require
more food and to risk some dangers. As a seedling
we treated it like a baby. We had to give it food,
but we tried to do it so that if there was anything in
the food that might disagree with it, any germs of
the diseases that attack plants, or any insects, we
should have as few as possible. We carefully sifted
the soil that there should be no cut worms or other
evil things that we could see to get rid of. We gave
the little seed for its first food that which was well

299

AMONG SCHOOL GARDENS

fitted for it, and only enough, supplying it with clean
sand that helped to hold the warmth for the seedling
and also to shed excess of water. Now the little plant
is ready to make some resistance to disease and must
have a larger pasturage for its roaming roots. So
we will use one part sand instead of three as before,
add one part of soil, and make up our whole by adding
a third part of well rotted manure. If absolutely
necessary, or for convenience in handling, its equiva-
lent in commercial fertilizer may be used, and all be
sifted together.

For Pots: Use the one and a half inch or two inch
pots. As they are very porous and would rob the
plants of all the water with which they are wet the
first time, the pots must be thoroughly soaked; they
must also be thoroughly clean before using.* First,
wash them lest they have any dirt or mould to harm
their new tenants. Then in the bottom of each pot
place bits of stone for drainage. Fill the pot about a
third full of the prepared soil, using only the finer
siftings. Lift the plant or plants carefully, taking
one at a time, hold it with the left hand in the center
of the pot, and fill in the soil evenly on all sides, press-
ing it firmly until it comes to within about one fourth
or one half inch of the top of the pot. Label.

Water: It is better to do this by placing the pots
in water and allowing the moisture to soak up through
the pots. Set away in the shade or cover with a paper
until the plants have established themselves.

Shifting or Repoiiing. — Soil: Here again the soil

* Many times the cheaper paper pots at small cost per hundred
may be used. These may be later buried in the ground and allowed
to decompose.

300

APPENDICES

changes to two quarts sand, four quarts soil, four
quarts well-rotted manure well sifted and having
added to it one half pint fine ground bone. This,
thoroughly mixed, makes a good food supply for
larger plants. In any of these soil compositions, cow
manure, a "cold" manure, can be advantageously
substituted for well-rotted horse manure. The pots
should change according to development of plant to
sizes one half inch or inch larger, at each resetting.

Method of Shifting: Have the earth in the pot
from which the plant is to be removed slightly damp.
It will come out easier, the soil will adhere together
instead of crumbling, and the roots of the plant will
be less disturbed. Remove the plant by inverting
its pot and rapping it slightly on the edge of a bench
or table. Meanwhile hold the plant so that its ball of
earth will fall lightly into the left hand; crumble a
little earth from the upper and lower edges of the ball
so as to expose a fresh, clean surface. Remove any
adhering drainage and reset in a pot one third filled
with earth. Firm the soil well about the plant, keep-
ing it erect and well centered. Label. Water and set
away in shade for twenty-four hours.

Transplanting. — An easy method of transplanting is
to take any ordinary board i foot wide and as long as
the bed is wide. Space it off into squares 2x2 inches
or 2 X 3 inches according to the distance apart the
plants are to be set and bore a | inch hole at each
cross and drive into this a pin that has been sharp-
ened rather bluntly, that will project about 3^ inches.
Lay the board on the bed pegs down and step on it.
This will drive the pins into the earth making places
for the plants. Then lift the board and move it back

301

AMONG SCHOOL GARDENS

its own width and stand on it and set the plants in the
holes just made. Move the board as before and set
plants and proceed in this manner till the bed is
finished. By this method the earth in the bed is
evenly firmed and the plants are put in perfect regu-
larity. (Suggested by R. F. Powell.)

NOTE 14, PAGE q8

TYPES OF RECORDS

From School Gardening for California Schools, by B. M. Davis

Teacher's Record

Lessons

Practical Work

Observations

Instruction and demonstration of I Garden prepa- Look for earth-
garden preparation. j ration. worms.

Instruction and demonstration Plant radishes. Look for earth-
of seed planting. 1 worms.

Instruction in making plant Plant carrots, i
records. 1 beets. :

Child's Record

Date

Work

Observations

Nov. 10
Nov. 1 1
Nov. 12

Finished garden by breaking

clods and raking.
Planted radishes and lettuce.

Planted onion sets.
Planted carrots and beets.

Found some earthworms

Looked for earthworms,
but found none.

Nov. 13
Nov. 14
Nov. 15

Radishes coming up.
Rain.

302

APPENDICES
A Plant Record

PL,

Variety

a
S

E.S
H

"o
d

a
o o

>
1

Enemies

Animals

Fungi

Remarks

Radish

French
Breakfast

Nov. lo

Dec. 20

None

Thinned
out 10

Radish

Scarlet _
Turnip

Nov. 10

Dec. 18

None

plants

Thinned

out 8

plants

NOTE 15, PAGE iQQ
COOKING NOTES

Such brief recipes as the following may be given
children, especially those of foreign born parentage.
(Do not forget the limitations of your pupils' homes.
Give the simplest directions.)

The One Constant Rule For Cooking Vegetables: All
fresh vegetables should be plunged in boiling water.
All dried vegetables should be placed in cold water
and brought to a boil.

(i) Spinach: Wash leaves thoroughly. Boil water,
add salt, put in leaves; when tender, strain, eat with
vinegar; or chop the leaves fine and add sauce, heat-
ing the spinach in it. When ready, serve with slices
of hard boiled egg as a garnish.

(2) Swiss chard: Boil leaves until tender and eat
with vinegar or add a sauce as for lettuce.

(3) Beets: Boil the leaves when young and eat
with vinegar or sauce, or boil the root, skin, slice and
add vinegar.

(4) Turnip: Wash the root thoroughly; cook in

303

AMONG SCHOOL GARDENS

salted boiling water, mash, season with butter, pepper
and salt, or cut in slices and add sauce.

(5) Lettuce: May be eaten with sugar and vinegar,
with oil or with mayonnaise dressing made thus :
Yolk of one egg beaten and add to it i teaspoonful of
made mustard; pour in olive oil, beating until quite
thick; season with | teaspoonful of salt and pepper
and 3 tablespoonfuls of vinegar. This will be enough
for two salads and will keep.

Older lettuce: Take the best inner leaves, wash,
put in boiling water; add a little salt; cook until
tender, strain, cover with sauce made of melted butter
and a little flour and salt.

(6) Radish: Eat the root with salt; also with vine-
gar.

Teach the use of as many new greens for cooking as
possible. Foreign children may be able to teach the
teacher. New Englanders sometimes use the tender
shoots of milkweed as a salad or salt them down so as
to have greens in winter time. Purslane, dandelion,
etc., are used.

NOTE 16, PAGE 222
INSECTICIDES
Injurious insects are divided into two great classes,
the biting, gnawing, or chewing insects which actually
eat some part of the plant they attack, and the suck-
ing insects which slowly draw the juices from the
plants. Common types of the first are beetles and
grass hoppers; of the second, aphids, plant bugs and
scale insects. Dose the first with something that will
poison their food, generally some form of arsenical

304

APPENDICES

poison, as Paris green. Give tiie second something
that they will inhale and that will stop their breath-
ing, like hellebore, pyrethrum, or something that will
smother them, like emulsions of kerosene oil, whale
oil soap, etc. Bordeaux mixture is good for blight.

NOTE 17, PAGE 225
SCHOOL OF HORTICULTURE, HARTFORD. CONN.
Piano} 20-fout Garden. {\ si year) 43 Spinach

North

Corn

Tomatoes

■9

Turnips

Beans (18^)

'7
16

Tomatoes (3 hills)

Cucumbers (4 hills)

Beans (i5i)

Tomatoes

Lettuce

Tomatoes (3 hills)

12
1 1

Peas

34
33

Peas

Potatoes

Parsnip

Potatoes

Carrots

5
4

Turnips (July 15)

Swiss Chard

Celery

Turnips (July 15)

Beets and Cabbage

23
22

Celery

I
Line

Flowers

Lima Beans

South

Peppers (5 hills)

Plan

of ^o-foot Garden,

IQOQ.

{4th year)

Peas

Corn (Hills 12 in. a

part)

(later, transplanted cab-

bage)

48i

Beans

Corn and Squash
mer)

(sum-

Peas
(later, transplanted cab-

bage)

45i

Beans

Corn and Turnips
turnips well)

(Thin

14
>3

Egg-plant (5 hills)

305

AMONG SCHOOL GARDENS

Line

School of Horticulture, Hartford, Co'N'n.— (Continued)

Beets

Onion Sets

Choice of Flowers or Vege-
tables
Flowers

May 15, lettuce, radish
and turnip planted.
May 22, peas, beets
and Swiss Chard. June
5, Corn. Other planting
up to July 1st
Lettuce planted and trans-
planted wherever con-
venient

12 Peppers (5 hills )

I I

10 Cabbage and Beets

(Cabbage seed 1 2 in. apart
among the beets)
9
8 Swiss Chard

7
6

Parsnips and Radish
(planted together)

5 Beets and Onion Sets
(Sets 6" apart)

4 Carrots and Parsley
(every 12 in.)

306

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3i6

APPENDICES

NOTE i8, PAGE 226
Largest yield from 34x8 foot plot was: —
4 bunches of radishes.
^ bushel of lettuce.
2 qts. beans.
I pk. beet greens.
^ pk. beets.
I pk. carrots.

A Cleveland school garden, 1905.

Produce on 10 x 30 foot plot, June 26th — Oct. 7th. The plot was

planted May 1 ith, 18th, and 25th. Radishes and lettuce were picked

before June 26th when this record began.

June 26th July 24th

Radishes 10, 1 qt. Peas

Turnips i 1 qt. Beans

Spinach 5 pk. 5 Carrots

June 30th 3 pk. Swiss Chard

Radishes 33 2 heads Lettuce

Turnips 1 qt 143 Pansies

Pansies 34 July 28th

Verbenas 88 3 Peppers

Lettuce i head i qt. Peas

July 3rd J pk. Swiss Chard

J pk. Spinach 2 qts. Beans

^ pk. (scant) Swiss Chard ^ pt. shelled Beans

24 Pansies 1 Squash

July 5th 150 Pansies

I pt. Peas 2 heads Lettuce

J pk. Spinach July 30th

July 7th 13 Carrots

I pk. Swiss Chard 2 heads Lettuce

35 Pansies Aug. 2nd

July 1 6th 3 Carrots

7 Beets Aug. 7th

1 head Lettuce i pk. Swiss Chard
63 Pansies i Squash

July 17th 2 Cucumbers

2 qts. Peas 1 Pepper
6 Beets 1 Tomato

2 heads Lettuce 5 heads Lettuce

July 21st 1 Carrot

2 qts. Wax Beans 100 Pansies
^ pk. Swiss Chard

317

AMONG SCHOOL GARDENS

Aug. I ith
2 Squash
2 Cucumbers
I Tomato

7 ears Corn
75 Pansies

Aug. 15th

1 1 ears Corn

8 Tomatoes

I head Lettuce
Aug. 1 8th

6 ears Corn
I Squash

4 Cucumbers
10 Tomatoes

1 pk. Swiss Chard
Aug. 22nd

2 Cucumbers

7 Tomatoes

3 ears Corn
Aug. 2i;th

3 Squash

8 Tomatoes

4 Cucumbers

1 pk. Swiss Chard
10 ears Corn

Aug. 28th

2 Cucumbers

3 Squash

I pk. Swiss Chard
Sept. I St

3 Tomatoes
1 Cucumber
I pt. Peas

A few squash were left in
Horticulture, Hartford.

Sept. 3rd

1 pk. Swiss Chard

2 Cucumbers

3 Tomatoes
I Pepper

3 Squash
Sept. 7th

Dug the Potatoes
3 Squash

3 Cucumbers

1 pk. Potatoes
13 Turnips

7 Radishes
5 Tomatoes
Sept. 15th
10 Squash

2 Tomatoes
12 Radishes

4 heads Lettuce
10 Turnips

Sept. 22nd

Q Squash

4 heads Lettuce
Sept. 2Qth

3 heads Cabbage

4 heads Lettuce

J pk. Swiss Chard

5 Peppers
Oct. 7th

2 Squash

I head Cabbage

6 Peppers

the garden. Record of plot, School of

The average yield from the plots of the school
8 by 16 feet, was 496 radishes, 21 beets, 2| pecks
of beans 1 5 heads of lettuce, 22 turnips, 202 tomatoes,
and I quart of lima beans. One hoe was stolen, the
only loss during the entire season. There were hun-
dreds of applicants for plots for the next year. Gam-
bling and rioting have disappeared from the neighbor-
hood, there have been fewer arrests than before, and

318

APPENDICES

the college settlement, a block away, reported that
"never had there been a summer so peaceful."

(Jewell, J. R., Agricultural Education, 1907.)

NOTE 19, PAGE 230

YONKERS SCHOOL GARDENS

Suggested Program*

Purpose

1. To retain influence on children through the year.

2. To make garden work continuous.

Methods

1. Garden work — Greenhouse and cold frames.

Slips, cuttings, bulbs, perennials, flats.

All methods of propagation.

Window boxes and potting.

Gathering of seeds, roots and slips.

Preparation for next season's work.

Renovating of tools, markers, varnishing, etc.

Sorting and measuring of seeds.

Homemade envelopes.

Help for home gardens, in measuring seeds.

Lectures: Market product, commercial food
stuffs, trees, farms, farming, domestic ani-
mals, etc., pests, cocoons, etc.

2. Playground — The garden after closing in fall, to be

at once ploughed and harrowed and used
as playground for four months.

Free play, group games, fair play.

Football, slides, skating, snow forts and
warfare.

♦Courtesy of Mrs. Arthur Livermore.
319

AMONG SCHOOL GARDENS

Making of simple apparatus.
Kite flying and making of flying toys.
3. Club House — To make Yonkers a Garden City.

"Clean city" clubs: — Talks on use and care of

parks and trees.
Hygiene talks, illustrated by plants.
Simple civics — simple sanitation.
Sanitary League talks.
Manufacture of "box furniture."
Music.

The Club House
ist floor — One large audience hall — for lectures and

lantern and music — pianola.
2nd floor — i. Reading room — papers, magazines and

books.

2. Game room.

3. Model housekeeping room — Teach wash-

ing, ironing, sweeping, dusting, cham-
ber work, vegetable preparation and
cooking.

4. Class rooms.
3d floor — For caretakers.

320

APPENDIX B

ADULT TESTIMONY

Mrs. Edith Goodyear Alger.

"In a school garden properly conducted chil-
dren become so deeply interested in accomplishing
a certain, definite, near and understandable re-
sult— the raising of flowers and vegetables — that
they learn to work hard without being conscious
of effort. This is a matter of the highest im-
portance in educating children." — Vermont Cir-
culars of Educational Information, No. XIII.

The American Civic Association has "the firm
conviction that there is no more potent influence
for better civic conditions in America than the
educated youth, in whom there is developed this
critical discernment of beauty and excellence in
nature and art, an abiding love for these things,
and a feeling of personal responsibility for better
civic conditions. Furthermore, its members are
firmly convinced that there is no more efficient
agency for the attainment of those high ideals
in education than school garden work, properly
correlated with other school work."

Dr. W. A. Baldwin, President Normal School,
Hyannis, Mass.
" I know of no form of work which has thus far
been introduced into our schools that is helping

321

AMONG SCHOOL GARDENS

SO much as is the school garden, toward the
development of the latest and best thought in
pedagogy. Schools are not to teach a prepara-
tion for life, but living itself, and that means the
greatest unfolding of the soul through reaction
upon environment, physical, industrial, social.
The school garden gives many opportunities for
such unfolding. Certainly the school garden is
an instrument of sound education.

" If it is to accomplish all that it should, it must
be work not play; it must be to the child, in
some degree, what the farm is to the farmer; it
must be planned and conducted with the idea that
it is to yield a fair return for the labor that is put
into it, and that the child who does the work is to
reap the reward of his labors. Such a garden will
make the child industrious, thoughtful and sym-
pathetic."— Hyannis Normal School Catalogue,
1907, page 30.

Miss Mary Marshall Butler, President of the
Women's Institute, Yonkers, N. Y.
"Our School Garden has convinced me that this
form of outdoor education is a rational and proper
sequence in the development of manual training.
As some one has aptly said, 'we need the shop,
the kitchen and the garden to cover completely
industrial education.' The necessity for indus-
trial or manual training, not only because of its
practical application to life but also because of its
stimulus to the brain, needs no argument.

322

APPENDICES

"Our Yonkers garden has convinced me that it
is a blessing to the child and to society, and that
it contains many elements of educational, social
and economic value." — Letter.

Dr. Otis W. Caldwell, Chicago University.
Founder of the first school garden in Illinois
at the Charleston State Normal School.
"One of the most important relations that the
garden bears to natural history vv^ork in general
exists in the opportunity it presents for organizing
a considerable part of the materials of natural
history. ... It offers, furthermore, an intro-
duction to nature, first through economic plants,
the ones best known and most closely associated
with the home and social life." — The Normal
School Bulletin, Jan., 1908.

Charles L. Coon, Superintendent of Education,
North Carolina.
"The garden is necessary because it furnishes a
combination of hand work and book work that pro-
motes thinking and observation." — "The School
Garden." (Leaflet.)

R. H. Cowley, author of Macdonald School

Gardens.

"Through the work of the school garden the

pupil's powers of observation are turned into the

orderly channels of cause and effect. His ever

widening outlook toward the objects and forces of

nature frees his mind from the power of sensory

24 323

AMONG SCHOOL GARDENS

illusions and his moral nature from superstitions.
Habits of accuracy are formed in measuring the
value of experiments according to the results ob-
tained. In noting carefully and with deep interest
both causes and effects, in assuming responsi-
bility for work that he performs in equal oppor-
tunity with his companions, in daily exercising
his power of initiative, in constantly combining
thought and action, he is steadily developing ele-
ments of character that must prove of great value
in after life. The good influence of the school
garden on the discipline and moral tone of the
school is remarked by all the teachers. Pupils
hitherto troublesome have become orderly and
docile. The percentage of regularity in attend-
ance has increased, and a deeper interest is taken
in all work of the school." — "The Macdonald
School Gardens," in Queen's Quarterly, page 417.

Professor J. G. Coulter and Miss Alice Jean Patter-
son, Department of Nature Study, State
Normal University, Normal, ill.
"To relate nature study to human interest is
sound pedagogy, for intelligence in what relates
to living should be a fundamental in education.

"The school garden, probably more than any
other phase of nature work, seems to supply a
natural demand irrespective of locality. It has
a definite mission to fulfil in the city as well as in
the village and rural school." — The Normal School
Quarterly, Jan., 1909.

324

APPENDICES

Dick J. Crosby, of the Oifice of Experiment Sta-
tions, Washington.
"Experience has shown that devoting four or
five hours a week, or even two hours a day, to
nature study and gardening, if properly conducted,
enables the pupils to accomplish more in the re-
maining time than they formerly accomplished
in the whole time spent in school." — American
Civic Association, Dept. of Children's Gardens,
Leaflet No. i.

Dr. Benjamin Marshall Davis, Miami University,
formerly of the State Normal School, Chico,
Cal., and author of "School Gardens for Cali-
fornia Schools."
"The greatest value of these gardens lies in
making up to the city child somewhat for the fact
that contact with nature is almost wholly left out
of his life. They form the basis of the most prac-
tical sort of nature study possible in cities. In
many cases, no doubt, the amount of money
spent for charts and other so-called aids to study,
would be sufficient to cover the expense of a gar-
den. But such an investment in a garden would
be a clear educational gain because much of the
illustrative material for geography and other
subjects would be prepared by the children." —
"School Gardens for California Schools," page 9.

President Eliot of Harvard, says: "A leading
object in education for efficiency is the cultivation

325

AMONG SCHOOL GARDENS

of the critical discernment of beauty and excel-
lence in things, and words, and thoughts, in
nature, and in human nature." — " Education for
Efficiency," page i8.

George D. Fuller, University of Chicago. Direc-
tor of the first Macdonald school garden in
Broome County, Quebec.

"In some schools there has been a very notice-
able change in the attitude of the pupils toward
the schoolroom and grounds, and they now take
pride in beautiful surroundings and care for them
where formerly they sought but to make desola-
tion more hideous.

"As the pupils have planned their plots, have
measured and staked them out, planted the seed
and cared for the plants, they have become more
skilful of hand and more accurate of eye, while
working from a definite plan has trained the judg-
ment and taught them to foresee the future. All
these results would warrant the existence of school
gardens, but more noticeable has been the re-
sponse to the appeal made to the higher nature of
the child."

"The pupils' attention has been turned to a
consideration of the beautiful to the exclusion of
many baser thoughts, and the resulting moral
culture has found expression in more orderly
behavior." — "The School Garden and The Coun-
try School," pages 46 and 246.

326

APPENDICES

B. F. Galloway, Chief of the Bureau of Plant
Industry, United States Department of Agri-
culture.
"It is desirable, where it can be made a class
exercise, that school time be devoted to this work,
for when done after hours it is necessarily volun-
tary, and those who do not volunteer are often the
ones it is especially desirable to reach." — "School
Gardens," U. S. Bulletin No. i6o. Office of Ex-
periment Station, page 43.

" In the school garden the fact should always be
kept prominent that the pupil is to be the most
active factor. We can put things in his way to
help him develop properly and keep him from
some of the things that fail so to help him, but
we cannot do his developing for him, and if he is
to have a knowledge of the elementary principles
of life, of industry, of mankind, of beauty and
justice, he must grow into these things by means
of first hand experience with them. To obtain
this growth and to eliminate some undesirable
things in the school, the school garden should
certainly prove efficient." — "School Gardens,"
U. S. Bulletin No. 160.

The Gardening Association of America, "or-
ganized for the development of school gardening
and other activities tending to occupy the people
and train them to the best use of land for their
intellectual, material and physical betterment"

327

AMONG SCHOOL GARDENS

includes in its membership both individuals and
associations that are interested in promoting
home and school gardens. It includes in its board
of governors such people as Mr. Bolton Hall, Pres.
Haines of the Home Gardening Association, Cleve-
land ; Mr. Samuel Fels, Dr. C. F. Hodge, Miss Louise
Klein Miller, Mrs. L. L. Wilson, of the Philadel-
phia Normal School; Dr. Crapsey, of Rochester,
and Mr. R. F. Powell, of the Buffalo Vacant Lot
Association.

Dr. C. F. Hodge, Clark University.

"The same thinking, willing, doing, the same
patience that enter into care of the plant or the
fledgling bird will later enter into the care of
home and children." — Speech at Session of Con-
ference on Prevention of Infant Mortality, New
Haven, Nov. 1 1, 1909.

"A school garden can also supply ethical culture
where it is most needed." — "Nature Study and
Life," page 130.

E. A. Howes, Principal of Macdonald Consoli-
dated School, Guelph, and Director of the
first Macdonald School Garden at Bowesville,
Ontario.
" I am ready to put myself on record as saying
that the school garden has relieved much of the
drudgery of the school work to which I was always
accustomed. This year we had our school garden

328

APPENDICES

and it has been the pleasantest year of my school
work. I would never again pass a summer with-
out a school garden. The child's mind gets growth
out of it because it is something it can understand.
Not only does the School Garden serve well as a
means of educating and training the child, but it
supplies a class of knowledge that is highly useful
and cultivates a taste for an honorable and re-
munerative vocation." — Letter.

James Ralph Jewell, Author of "Agricultural
Education including Nature Study and School
Gardens."

"The importance of school gardens is indicated
by the impetus given them from so many sides,
by the fact that they are not in any way the fad
of some one class of people, but that they are used
— and successfully used — by organizations with
widely different purposes to further their own aims
and to solve the problems of special interest to
them." (Page 37.)

"The district nurses of some of our American
cities report much better health among children
at work in school gardens than before such work
was undertaken — a thing of no inconsiderable im-
portance to us as a people." (Page 121.)

"College settlements in all the cities have lent
their aid, and everywhere local agricultural and
horticultural societies have given at least moral
support. The committee of five of the National
Educational Council has attested to the value of a

329

AMONG SCHOOL GARDENS

garden with every school. The American Civic
Association has organized a department of chil-
dren's gardens." (Page 38.)

"The American Institute of Social Science is
conducting a propaganda for the establishment
of schools for children of weak and undeveloped
constitutions where power of resistance is small,
where the buildings shall be surrounded by trees
and where gardening shall be a particular feature."
(Page 120.) — "Agricultural Education,"

"Practical ethics are best insured by making
every citizen, at least potentially, a producer.
For example, a small, well-managed farm school
has proved more successful than any other means
for reforming boys with criminal tendencies."
(Page 126.)

"The ethical value of producing something
cannot be overestimated; in this lies the only road
to altruism open to the child, as well as a guaranty
of his respect for the products of others." (Page
125.)

"Country children have become interested in
the science of their future life occupation, and so
they have been taught to think for themselves
and to respect their calling. Children have been
taught through these gardens more about practical
ethics than by any other means yet devised, besides
learning something of the fundamental occupation
of mankind — tilling the earth." (Page 46.)

330

APPENDICES

"In rural schools where other forms of manual
training are perhaps out of the question for the
present, practical agricultural work supplies the
motor training needed by all and essential to the
motor minded." (Page 125.)

"School gardens possess all these advantages
of manual training, with the added ones, over
some forms of this discipline, of their feasibility
almost anywhere, of easier inculcation of the sense
of ownership, of working with the fundamental
instead of the mere accessory muscles, and of
being essentially out-of-door work." (Page 41 .)

"School gardens have the advantage over all
other school work of promoting the health of the
child, especially in cases of incipient tuberculosis."
(Page 125.)

Finally, to quote once more from Mr. Jewell's in-
vestigation concerning agricultural educa-
tion:
"A study of the laws of nature may well teach
one that 'whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he
also reap,' in his life as well as from the soil.
In working through a long season, side by side
with others, the child gets his earliest and best
instruction in social responsibilities, in what he
owes to his neighbor, one of the most important
things an individual of to-day has to learn." — ■
(Page 118.) — "Agricultural Education."

331

AMONG SCHOOL GARDENS

Miss Dora Keen, Vice-President, The Public Edu-
cation Association of Philadelphia,
"(i) To teach children to learn by observation,
and to give them practical training by the eye
and the hand.

(2) To teach children to apply what they learn
from books, as to nature study, mensuration, and
other subjects, without the strain of additional
indoor work.

(3) To influence character by appeal to their
love of nature.

(4) To prepare children for citizenship by teach-
ing, practically, the care of private and public
property.

(5) To mould character by demanding inde-
pendence, each child being dependent upon him-
self in a garden for the results of his labor.

(6) To impress practically and theoretically the
law of sequence, one event proceeding from
another as its direct consequence.

(7) To educate the emotions, by teaching care
and protection of tender growing things.

A GARDENER, no matter how excellent,
will not be as competent as an experienced teacher
to carry out these educational purposes of school
gardens." — Report of the Public Education Asso-
ciation of Philadelphia, 1905.

A. W. Leech, Day School Inspector, Rosebud
Indian Agency.
"These people (the Indians) have never fol-
332

APPENDICES

lowed agriculture and in their primitive state de-
pended entirely on the chase, thus differing from
many of the tribes of the east and the south. It
is to change them from this manner of living that
the school and school garden are instituted among
them."— Letter.

Edward Martin, Director Public Health and
Charities, Philadelphia, writes: "In the slums of
Philadelphia I have found that in the houses
where there are flowers — a result of our school
gardens — there is neat cleanliness, although all
around is squalor."

"School gardens in the slums of a number of
cities have taught more civic righteousness than
all the police courts or college settlements have
been able to do." — Quoted in Keen's " Philadel-
phia School Gardens."

Miss Louise Klein Miller, Curator of School Gardens,
Cleveland, Ohio.

"The work of gardening is all wholesome and
conducive to making better, stronger boys and
girls and more industrious, law-abiding citizens."
— "Children's Gardens," page 71.

"Experience has taught that this is the best
possible kind of work for this (defective) class of
children. It opens a new avenue for future oc-
cupation."— Letter.

"It ministers directly to physical well-being;
helps to establish habits of punctuality, regularity

333

AMONG SCHOOL GARDENS

and constancy; reveals executive ability in those
wiio superintend; and arouses a desire to improve
the home grounds." — Home Gardening Associa-
tion Report, 1906, page 9.

Dr. James W. Robertson, President of Mac-
donald College, Ste. Anne de Bellevue,
Quebec, Canada.
"When a child does anything with its own
hands, such as planting a seed, pulling up a plant,
making examination of the changes which have
taken place during its growth, making a drawing
of it, mounting it and putting its name on it, he
receives impressions by the sense of touch, he
sees, he hears the noise of the movements he makes,
and he smells the soil and the part of the plant
with which he is dealing. Those impressions are
definite and lasting; they add to the sum of sen-
suous knowledge; they prepare for the perception
of logical knowledge, in a common sense way." —
"Macdonald Fund for Manual Training and the
Improvement of Rural Schools," page 43.

"Since engaging in the work my boys and girls
have been first in all examinations, competing
with children from other schools, including city
schools. The whole tone of the school has been
improved morally, socially, and esthetically. Our
boys and girls have now a reverence for life
unknown before, and it has awakened in them, as

334

APPENDICES

nothing else could do, a deeper interest in all
life around them." (Page 197.)

"The best education in rural schools should
make the people like rural life and also enable
them to make it more profitable. The best way
to make any workman like his work is to make
him understand it. The school garden is one way
of making rural life more popular as well as
efficient." — "The Macdonald Movement for Rural
Education," page 193.

Erasmus Schwab, Vienna. Founder of the move-
ment, and author of "The School Garden,"
1855.
"A proper school garden may, must and is
destined to be the place where children are
happiest; it must be the dearest spot in those
hours which they do not spend in the schoolroom
or occupy at home in work for the school." —
"The School Garden," page 22.

335

APPENDIX C

HOW TO PLANT A TREE*

I . Dig the hole wider and deeper than the tree re-
quires. If the tree just fits into the socket the tips of
the roots will meet a hard wall which they are too
delicate to penetrate, hold fast to, or feed in.

\\. Be sure that the surface soil is hoarded at one side
when the hole is dug. This soil is mellow and full of
plant food. The under soil is harder and more barren.
Some rich garden soil can well be brought over and
used instead of the subsoil.

III. Take up as large a root system as possible with
the tree you dig. The smaller the ball of earth, the
greater the loss of feeding roots and the danger of
starvation to the tree.

IV. Trim all torn and broken roots with a sharp knife.
A ragged wound below or above the ground is slow and
uncertain in healing. A clean, slanting cut heals
soonest and surest.

V. Set the tree on a bed of mellow soil with all its
roots spread naturally.

VI. Let the level be the same as before. The tree's

roots must be planted, but not buried too deep to

breathe. A stick laid across the hole at the ground

level will indicate where the tree "collar" should be.

VII. Sift rich earth, free from clods, among the

* Rogers, Julia E.: The Tree Book. By permission of Doubleday,
Page and Company.

336

APPENDICES

roots. Hold the tree erect and firm; lift it a little to
make sure the spaces are well filled underneath. Pack
it well down with your foot.

VIII. // in the growing season, pour in water and let
it settle away. This establishes contact between root
hairs and soil particles, and dissolves plant food for
absorption. If the tree is dormant do not water it.

IX. Fill the hole with dirt. Tramp in well as filling
goes on. Heap it somewhat to allow for settling. If
subsoil is used, put it on last. Make the tree firm in
its place.

X. Prune the top to a few main branches and shorten
these. This applies to a sapling of a few years whose
head you are able to form. Older trees should also be
pruned to balance the loss of roots. Otherwise trans-
piration of water from the foliage would be so great as
to overtax its roots, not yet established in the new
place. Many trees die from this abuse. People can-
not bear to cut back the handsome top, though a
handsomer one is soon supplied by following this
reasonable rule.

XI. Water the tree frequently as it first starts. A
thorough soaking of all the roots, not a mere sprink-
ling of the surface soil, is needed. Continuous growth
depends on moisture in the soil. Drainage will re-
move the surplus water.

XII. Keep the surface soil free from cakes or cracks.
This prevents excessive evaporation. Do not stir the
soil deep enough to disturb the roots. Keep out
grass and weeds.

337

APPENDIX C

TEN PRINCIPLES OF PRUNING*

1. Pruning the roots lessens the food supply, and so
retards top growth.

2. Pruning the top invigorates the branches that
remain, the root system being unchanged,

3. Removing terminal buds induces forking, thus
thickening the branching system. It checks wood
production, and encourages the production of fruit
and flowers.

4. Unpruned trees tend to wood production.

5. Summer pruning reduces the struggle among
leaves and twigs for light and produces stronger buds
for spring.

6. Winter pruning removes superfluous buds, in-
ducing greater health in those that are left to develop.

7. Dead wood should be taken out at any season
and burned.

8. The best time to prune, generally speaking, is
just before the growth starts in the spring.

9. Early winter pruning is undesirable because the
healing of wounds must wait until spring.

10. Yearly pruning is better than pruning at less
frequent intervals.

* Rogers, Julia E.: The Tree Book. By permission of Doubleday,
Page and Company.

338

APPENDIX D

A HYMN FOR ARBOR DAY
By Henry [Ianby Hay

God save this tree we plant !
And to all nature grant

Sunshine and rain.
Let not its branches fade,
Save it from axe and spade.
Save it for joyful shade —

Guarding the plain.

When it is ripe to fall.
Neighbored by trees as tall,

Shape it for good.
Shape it to bench and stool,
Shape it to square and rule.
Shape it for home and school,

God bless the wood.

Lord of the earth and sea.
Prosper our planted tree,

Save with Thy might.
Save us from indolence.
Waste and improvidence.
And in Thy excellence

Lead us aright.

25 339

BIBLIOGRAPHY

BIBLIOGRAPHY
I.

A FREE SCHOOL GARDEN LIBRARY*

UNITED STATES DEPAFrFMENT OF AGRICULTURE

Farmers' Bulletins

No.

2 1 8. The School Garden. 40 pages
195. Annual Flowering Plants. 48 pages
185. Beautifying the Home Grounds. 24 pages
134. Tree Planting in Rural School Grounds. 32 pages
157. The Propagation of Plants. 24 pages
25. Peanuts: Culture and Uses. 24 pages
28. Weeds: And How to Kill Them. 30 pages

* Copies will be sent free to any address in the United States on
application to a Senator, Representative or Delegate in Congress, or
to the Secretary of Agriculture, Washington, D. C.

Many of the state agricultural colleges issue similar series, some-
times for sale outside the states. To give a complete list would ex-
ceed the limits of this bibliography, but on page 347 certain important
pamphlets issued by the Massachusetts State Board of Agriculture
and by the Hampton Institute, Virginia, are given as indicative not
only of the garden work done in these two localities but of the subject
matter that may be expected from local state authorities. Title
lists can usually be had upon application.

The Home Nature Study and Rural School Leaflets of Cornell
University, Ithaca, N. Y., as well as the pamphlets of the Cornell
Agricultural College, are available for residents of New York state,
but the editions are limited. Some of these may be found in the
larger libraries.

343

AMONG SCHOOL GARDENS

No.

54. Some Common Birds in Their Relation to Agri-
culture. 48 pages

62. Marketing Farm Produce. 28 pages

77. The Liming of Soils. 24 pages

86. Thirty Poisonous Plants of the United States.
32 pages

91. Potato Diseases and Their Treatment. 12 pages

121. Beans, Peas, and Other Legumes as Food.

39 pages
127. Important Insecticides: Directions for their Prepa-
ration and use. 45 pages
138. Irrigation in Field and Garden. 40 pages
146. Insecticides and Fungicides. 16 pages

154. The Home Fruit Garden: Preparation and Care.

16 pages

155. How Insects affect Health in Rural Districts.

20 pages
158. How to Build Small Irrigation Ditches. 20 pages
181. Pruning. 39 pages
188. Weeds used in Medicine. 47 pages
192. Barnyard Manure. 32 pages
196. Usefulness of the American Toad. 16 pages
220. Tomatoes. 32 pages
233. Experiment Station Work— XXXI. 32 pages

Root Systems.
245. Renovation of Worn-out Soils. 16 pages
248. The Lawn. 20 pages

254. Cucumbers. 32 pages

255. The Home Vegetable Garden. 48 pages

256. Preparation of Vegetables for the Table. 48

pages

257. Soil Fertility. 40 pages
35. Potato Culture. 24 pages

344

BIBLIOGRAPHY

No.
264. The Brown-tail Moth and How to Control It.

24 pages
270. Modern Conveniences for the Farm Home. 48

pages
275. The Gipsy Moth and How to Control It. 24 pages
278. Leguminous Crops for Green Manuring. 29 pages
289. Beans. 30 pages
295. Potatoes and Other Root Crops as Food. 47

pages
315. Progress in Legume Inoculation. 20 pages
318. Cowpeas. 31 pages
324. Sweet Potatoes. 39 pages
339. Alfalfa. 48 pages
354. Onion Culture. 36 pages
359. Canning Vegetables in the Home. 16 pages

Bureau of Biological Survey
Circulars
17. Bird Day in the Schools. 4 pages

Bureau of Entomology
Circulars
3. An Important Enemy to Fruit Trees: The San
Jose Scale; its appearance in the Eastern
United States; Measures to be taken to Prevent
its Spread and to Destroy it. 10 pages
5. The Carpet Beetle, or Buffalo Moth. 4 pages
9. Canker Worm. 4 pages
1 1 . The Rose Chafer. 4 pages

38. The Squash-vine Borer. 6 pages

39. The Common Squash Bug. 5 pages

42. How to Control the San Jose Scale. 6 pages
345

AMONG SCHOOL GARDENS

No.

59. The Corn Root-worms. 8 pages

60. The Imported Cabbage Worm. 8 pages
98. The Apple-tree Tent Caterpillar. 8 pages

104. The Common Red Spider. 1 1 pages

Office of Experiment Stations
Circulars
60. The Teaching of Agriculture in the Rural Common

Schools. 20 pages
73. Country Life Education. 13 pages
84. Education for Country Life. 40 pages
160. School Gardens.*

Forest Service (Bureau of Forestry)
Circulars
5. Arbor Day Planting in Eastern States. 4 pages
II. Facts and Figures Regarding Our Forest Re-
sources, Briefly Stated. 8 pages
96. Arbor Day, 4 pages

Yearbook Papers
125. Some Edible and Poisonous Fungi. 18 pages

(Reprinted from the Yearbook for 1897.)

233. Some Problems of the Rural Common School.

22 pages

(Reprinted from the Yearbook for 1901.)

382. The Use of Illustrative Material in Teaching

Agriculture in Rural Schools. 18 pages

(Reprinted from the Yearbook for 1905.)

* This is out of print as a free document, but may be had for
10 cents by applying to Superintendent of Documents, Washing-
ton, D. C.

A list of many valuable documents that are for sale at from 5
cents to 25 cents apiece, may be had upon application.

346

BIBLIOGRAPHY

MASSACHUSETTS STATE BOARD OF AGRICULTURE
Nature Leaflets (Address State House, Boston, Mass.)

The leaflets usually contain 2 to 4 pages and are free within the
state. They cost 2 cents each to those outside the state. Among
them are the following:

No.

1. Canker Worms

2. Tent Caterpillar

4. Insecticides, Fungicides, and How to Make Tiiem

5. The White Marker Tussock Moth

6. The Spiny Ehn Caterpillar

8. The May Beetle, also Ants Indoors and Out
15. Bird Houses

17. Bordeaux Mixture

18. Plant Lice or Aphids

19. Edible Weeds and Pot Herbs

20. Massachusetts Weeds

22 & 25. Hints on Outdoor Bird Study

26. Browntail Moth

27. Gipsy Moth

28. The Garden Toad

29-32. School Gardens (Written by H. D. Hemen-
way)

A list of publications will be sent upon application.

HAMPTON NATURE STUDY BUREAU
(Hampton Institute, Hampton, Va )

Agricultural Leaflets

1. Plants

2. Soils

3. Farm Manures

4. Commercial Fertilizers

5. Plowing, Harrowing and Rolling

6. Notes on Seed Planting

7. Notes on Soil Moisture

347

AMONG SCHOOL GARDENS

No.

8. Rotation of Crops

9. Notes on Drainage

Children's Nature Study Leaflets

1. A Child's Garden

2. How to Make Friends With the Birds

3. The Winged Pollen Carriers

Teachers' Leaflets

1. Nature Study

2. How Seeds Travel

3. Evergreens

4. Seed Planting Experiments

5. Cocoons and Chrysalids

6. Roots

7. Beautifying School Houses and Yards

8. Winter Birds

9. Soils

10. The Meaning of the Flower

1 1 . Plowing

12. Harrowing

13. Arbor Day Suggestions

14. How to Know Trees by Their Bark

15. School Gardening

A complete list may be had upon application. They cost 23
cents per dozen to any one in the Southern States, but 5 cents each
or 50 cents per dozen (cheaper by the 100) to those outside.

II. SELECTED BIBLIOGRAPHY
I. Reference Books
Bailey, L. H.: New Cyclopedia of Horticulture, 6 vols.
Doubleday, Page and Co., New York, 1906.
I20.00

348

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Cyclopedia of Agriculture. Doubleday, Page and

Co. $20.00

Botany, an elementary text book. The Macmillan

Co., New York, 1901. |i.oo
The Nature Study Idea. Doubleday, Page and

Co., New York, 1909. |i.oo
Caldwell, Otis W. : Laboratory Manual of Botany.

D. Appleton and Co., New York, 1909. $ .50
Crosby, W. M.: Common Minerals and Rocks. D. C.

Heath and Co., Boston, 1909. $ .40
GoFF, E. S., and Mayne, D. D.: First Principles of

Agriculture. American Book Co., New York

and Cincinnati, 1904. $ .80
Gray, Asa: Manual of Botany, Edition 1909. Ameri-
can Book Co., New York. $2.50
King, Franklin H.: Physics of Agriculture and The

Soil. Orange Judd Co., New York, 1909. | .50

and 1 1. 50
LiPMAN, Jacob G. : Bacteria in Relation to Country

Life. The Macmillan Co., New York, 1908.

I1.75
Long, E. A.: Ornamental Gardening for Americans.

Orange Judd Co., New York, 1909. $1.50
Maynard, Samuel T. : Landscape Gardening. John

Wiley and Sons, New York, 1909. $1.50
Parsons, J. S.: How to Plan the Home Grounds.

Doubleday, Page and Co., New York, 1905.

$1.00
Rogers, Julia E.: The Tree Book. Doubleday, Page

and Co., New York, 1905. I4.00

(Finely illustrated with explicit text)

349

AMONG SCHOOL GARDENS

Skinner, C. M.: Little Gardens, or How to Beautify
City Yards and Small Country Spaces. D.
Appleton and Co., New York, 1909. $1.25

(See for choice and arrangement of shrubbery and flowers)

Nature in a City Yard. The Century Co., New

York, 1909. 1 1. 00
Waugh, F. a.: Landscape Gardening. Orange Judd

Co., New York, 1909. $ .50
WooDHULL, J. F. : Manual of Home-made Apparatus.

New Paltz, New York, 1888. | .50

(Simple experiments for the schoolroom)

2. Books and Bulletins for the School Garden
AS A Whole.

Alger, Edith Goodyear: School Gardens. Circular
XI n, Vermont Dep't. of Education, Montpelier,
Vermont, 1902.

(Excellent)

Bailey, L. H.: Garden Making, iith ed., Grosset
and Dunlap, New York, 1906. $ .50

Bailey, L. H., and Hunn: The Practical Garden Book.

5th ed., Grosset and Dunlap, New York, 1906.

I .50

(Alphabetically arranged and "containing the simplest direc-
tions for the growing of the commonest things about the
home and garden.")

Baldwin, William A.: Industrial-Social Education.
Milton Bradley Co., Springfield, Massachusetts,
1907.

(Chapter XIV — First year school garden work

XV — Second year school garden work

XVI — Correlation of school garden work with other

studies
XVil — Advantages of school gardens and suggestions
about their management)

BIBLIOGRAPHY

The School Gardens and their Relation to Other
School Work. Dept. Children's Gardens.
Pamphlet No. 2, American Civic Association,
Union Trust Bldg., Washington, D. C. [1904.]
$.10
Bardswell, F. a.: The Book of Town and Window
Gardening. John Lane Co., New York, 1909.
1 1. 00

(Window, roof and backyard gardens)

Beal, W. J.: Seed Dispersal. Ginn and Co., Boston,

1909. I .40
BiGELOW, E. F. : An Eggshell Garden. Si. Nicholas,

1904.
How Nature Study should be Taught. Hinds,

Noble and Eldredge, New York, 1904.

(One chapter is devoted to school gardens. Useful in helping a
teacher to check up results)

Brittain, J.: Manual and Outline of Nature Lessons.
J. and A. McMillan, St. Johns, N. B.

(The maritime provinces are the most advanced in school
gardening work in Canada)

Caldwell, Otis W. : The School Garden, I and I!
(1903- 1 908) The Normal School Bulletin,
Charleston, 111.

(Including an account of the first school garden in Illinois.
It contains also (i) descriptions and illustrations of school
gardens in Germany and a discussion of the differences be-
tween European and American uses. A valuable contribu-
tion to the subject)

CoRBETT, L. C. : Annual Flowering Plants. Farmers'
Bulletin No. 195. Free

(Simple cultural directions. Illustrated)

AMONG SCHOOL GARDENS

Coulter, J. M. and J. G., and Patterson, Alice Jean :
Practical Nature Study and Elementary Agri-
culture. D. Appleton and Co., New York, 1909.

(Chapters on the school garden, and an account of the large
and successful school garden at Normal, 111.)

Coulter, Stanley: A Country School Garden. Na-
ture Study Leaflets No. 9. Purdue University,
Lafayette, Ind., 1898.

(One of a series of leaflets on nature study)

Davis, B. M.: School Gardens for California Schools.

A Manual for Teachers. Publications of the

State Normal School, Chico, Cal. Bulletin No.

I, July, 1905. $ .50

(The bulletin is intended to give California teachers who
desire to conduct school gardens the benefit of Dr. Davis's
experience in such work at Los Angeles and Chico, and of
his suggestions as put in practice in Oakland and San Diego.
Though written for California conditions, its broad and thor-
ough treatment makes its teachings useful elsewhere)

Dearness, John: The Nature Study Course. The
Copp Clark Co., Toronto, Canada, 1905. |i.oo

(Excellent as showing the work done in schools and in school
gardening)

Duncan, Frances: Mary's Garden and How it Grew.
The Century Co., New York, 1904. I1.25
When Mother Lets us Garden. Moffat, Yard and
Co., New York, 1909. | .75

(Delightful books to use with little children)
Elementary Agriculture and Horticulture and School
Gardens in Rural and Village, Public and Sepa-
rate Schools. Circular XI II, July, 1909. Issued
by Dep't. of Education, Toronto, Canada

(Has charts and most useful data for starting gardens)

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Emerson, Philip, and Weed, Clarence M.: The
School Garden Book. Charles Scribner's Sons,
New York, 1909. I1.25

(Work month by month. Very helpful)

Hays, Willet M.: Rural School Agriculture. The
McGill-Warner Co., St. Paul, Minn. | .50

(Exercises in agriculture and housekeeping for rural schools.
Excellent problems to connect school garden and school
work.) See Bibliography page 368

Hemenway, Herbert D.: How to Make School

Gardens. Doubleday, Page and Co., New York,

1903. 1 1. GO

(Fifteen pages on school gardens; 3 1 pages devoted to 2 r simple
lessons on gardening; 23 pages on greenhouse work)

Hints and Helps to Young Gardeners, 2d ed.

H. D. Hemenway, Hartford, Conn., 1908. | .35
Hendricks, E. L. : School Gardens at Delphi, Indiana.

Nature Study Review — Feb., 1909.
Hodge, C. F. : Nature Study and Life. Ginn and Co.,

Boston [1902]. 1 1. 50

(One of the very best books for the teacher)

HoLTZ, Frederick L.: Nature Study. A Manual for
Teachers and Students. Charles Scribner's Sons,
New York, 1908. I1.50

(Excellent. Chapter XVI, The School Garden)

Jackson, C. R., and Daugherty, Mrs. L. S.: Agricul-
ture through the Laboratory and School Garden.
Orange Judd Co., New York, 1908

(Good)

Jekyl, Gertrude: Children and Gardens. Charles

Scribner's Sons, New York, 1908. $2.00

353

AMONG SCHOOL GARDENS

Jewell, James Ralph: Agriculture Education includ-
ing Nature Study and School Gardens. Bulle-
tin No. 2, 1907. U. S. Dep't. of Interior —
Bureau of Education.

(Edition limited. A comprehensive report of work done to date)

Keeper, C. A.: Nature Studies on the Farm. Ameri-
can Book Co., New York, 1909. | .40

Kern, O. J.: Among Country Schools. Ginn and Co.,
Boston [1906]. 1 1. 50

(Chapter on school gardens; best discussion of needs of country
schools)

Kern, O. J.: Annual Reports on the Schools of Winne-
bago County, Illinois. Rockford, 111., 1904-1909
(Well illustrated and always helpful)

Laidlaw, Margaret C. : School Gardens. Kinder-
garten Review, Sept., 1904

Latter, Lucy: School Gardening for Little Children.
Swan, Sonnenschein and Co., London, 1906.

1-75

(One of the best books, especially for little children)

Robertson, James W. : Macdonald Movement for
Rural Education and Other Addresses. By the
President of Macdonald College, Ste. Anne de
Bellevue, Quebec, Canada.

(Extremely practical and forceful arguments for improvement
of rural schools; for a curriculum suited to an agricultural
community; and for the benefit to be derived from school
gardens)

Miller, Louise Klein: Children's Gardens. D. Ap-
pleton and Co., New York, 1908. $1.25

(Really descriptive of gardens in connection with schools.
One of the best books published. Miss Miller is Curator of
Gardens in the public schools of Cleveland, and jointly with
the Cleveland Home Gardening Association has initiated a
far reaching and forceful work)

354

BIBLIOGRAPHY

MoRLEY, Margaret W.: Flowers and Their Friends.
Ginn and Co., Boston, 1897. | .60

(Delightful stories for little folks about the morning glory, the
geranium family, the hyacinth and the general structure of
flowers)

Seed Babies. Ginn and Co., Boston, 1896. | .30

(Catchy stories for little folks, such as "This is the flower so
bright and gay" after "The house that Jack built")

Parsons, Henry G.: Children's Gardens for Pleasure,
Health and Education. Sturgis and Walton,
New York. $1.00

(Announced for April, iqio)

Parsons, Mrs. Henry M.: Report of the Children's
Farm School of DeWitt Clinton Park, 1902-1904
Annual Reports of the Children's International
School Farm League, 1907- 1909

Reports of Cleveland Home Gardening Association.
Address the Secretary, 501 St. Clair Ave.

("The Home Gardening Association aims to make the city
beautiful. It strives to interest larger numbers of people in the
task. This is done through the distribution of seeds in penny
packets, through illustrated lectures, through school, training
and vacant lot gardens. Thirty thousand families in Cleve-
land, as well as schools and civic organizations in more than
one hundred other cities and villages participate in the work."
See also in connection with these the reports of the Cleve-
land Board of Education for school garden work in that city.)

Schwab, Erasmus: The School Garden (1855). Trans-
lated by Mrs. Horace Mann, 1879. M. L. Hol-
brook. New York, 1879. | .50

(The earliest book on the subject and by the founder of the
school garden in Europe. Still a classic)

SiPE, Susan B.: School Gardening and Nature Study
in English Rural Schools and in London. U. S.
Dept. of Agric, Office of Exp'm't Stations,
Bulletin No. 204

(Showing what can be done under the hardest city conditions)

355

AMONG SCHOOL GARDENS

Tree Planting: School Gardens and Schoolroom Deco-
ration in Nebraska. Report of Agricultural Exp.
Station, Lincoln, Neb. Bulletin No. 55

(Excellent)

Weed, Clarence M.: Seed Travelers. Ginn and Co.,
Boston, 1902. I .50

14 stories (7=The Wind as a Seed Distributor)
(5 = Seed Dissemination bv Birds)
(2=Seed Dispersal by Spines and Hooks)

Wilson, Mrs. Lucy Langdon Williams: Nature
Study in Elementary Schools. The Macmillan
Co., New York, 1907. A Manual for Teachers.
1.90
Nature Study in Elementary Schools
First and Second Readers. The Macmillan Co.,
New York, 1905- 1909. Each, $ .35

(Use these three books together in the first four years of school
life and later according to the requirements of the children
in the school garden. The first presupposes no special train-
ing on the teacher's part nor special facilities for collecting
material. The Readers lead to a love of good literature.
Stories are arranged by months)

3. Books and Bulletins on Tree and Plant Life

Blanchan, Neltje: Nature's Garden. Doubleday.
Page and Co., New York, 1909. I2.50

(Flowers described according to color)

The American Flower Garden. Doubleday, Page
and Co., New York, 1909. $5.00

(Gardens described according to character, as formal garden,
rock garden, old fashioned garden, etc. Both books ad-
mirably illustrated)

Brown, Kate Louise: The Plant Baby and its Friends.
Silver, Burdett and Co., New York, 1909. $ .48
356

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Cooke, Flora J.: Nature Myths. A. F"Iannagan Co.,

Chicago, 1909. Cloth bound, I.35; paper

bound, I .25
Dana. Mrs. Wm. Starr (Mrs. F. T. Parsons): How

to know Ferns. 1909. I1.50
How to know Wild Flowers. 1898. $2.00
According to Season. Charles Scribner's Sons.

1902. I1.75
Davey, John: The Tree Doctor. Saalfield Publishing

Co., New York and Chicago, 1904

(Profusely illustrated)

Davis, B. M.: Experimental Studies of Plant Growth.

The Miami Bulletin, Series VII, No. i. Miami

University, Oxford, Ohio, 1907
French, Allen : Book of Vegetables and Garden

Herbs. The Macmillan Company, New York,

1907. 1 1. 75

(" Practical handbook and planting table for the vegetable
gardener ')

Hall, Bolton: Three Acres and Liberty. The Mac-
millan Co., New York, 1907. $1.50
The Garden Yard. David McKay, Philadelphia,
1909. I .80

(Both show what can be accomplished on small areas of land)

Harrison, F. C. : The Weeds of Ontario. Dept. of
Agriculture, Toronto

(Good in part for the United States)

Knobel, E.: Guide to find the Trees and Shrubs of

New England by their leaves. Bradlee Whid-

den, Boston, 1894. Paper covered, $ .50

(Trees classified by the outline of their leaves; the outlines
illustrated)

357

AMONG SCHOOL GARDENS

LouNSBERRY, Alice : The Garden Book for Young
People. Frederick A. Stokes Co., New York,
1908

(A garden book in the form of a story of a young boy and an
elder sister who mai<e so good a garden that it interests the
older people of the neighborhood also. The book includes
much practical knowledge of garden work and something
about birds)

A Guide to Wild Flowers. Frederick A. Stokes
Co., New York, 1899. New Ed., 1902. I1.72

The Wild Flower Book for Young People. Fred-
erick A. Stokes Co., New York, 1909. I1.50

A Guide to the Trees. Frederick A. Stokes Co.,
New York, 1902. $1.75

Southern Wild Flowers and Trees. Frederick A.
Stokes Co., New York, 1909. I3.70
Mathews, Schuyler F. : The Beautiful Flower Garden.
Orange Judd Co., New York, 1909

Familiar Trees and Their Leaves. D. Appleton
and Co., New York, 1909. $1.75

Familiar Features of the Roadside (flowers, trees,
insects, birds). D. Appleton and Co., New York,
1897. I1.75

Familiar Flowers of Field and Garden. D. Apple-
ton and Co., New York, 1909. I1.40
NoRTHRUP, Alice R.: Flower Shows in City Schools.

Nature Study Review, May, 1905
OsTERHAUT, W. J. V.: Experiments with Plants. The
Macmillan Co., New York, 1906. I1.25

(Most useful in suggesting and devising simple plant experi-
ments)

Powell, E. P.: The Country Home. McClure, Phil-
lips and Co., New York, 1904

(Chapters on flowers and vegetables)

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Hedges, Windbreaks, Shelters, Live Fences. Mc-
Clure, Phillips and Co., New York, 1900. | .50
Roe, E. p.: The Home Acre. Dodd, Mead and Co.,
New York, 1909. | .75

(Two chapters on the kitchen garden)

Rogers, Ellen R.: Trees every Child should Know.
48 ill. Doubleday, Page and Co., New York,
1909. $1.20

(Interesting to children)

ScHAUFFLER, RoBERT Haven : Arbor Day. Moffat,
Yard and Co., New York, 1909. $1.00

("Its history, observance, spirit, significance; with practical
suggestions on tree planting and conservation and nature
anthology")

Smith, Eleanor: Songs for the Year. Silver, Burdett

and Co., New York, 1909. 2 parts. Each | .15
Songs of Life and Nature. Silver, Burdett and

Co., New York, 1909. I1.25, also | .75
Stone, Gertrude L., and Fickett, M. Grace: Trees

in Prose and Poetry. Ginn and Co., Boston,

1909. I .55

(Poetry of the common trees)

Tree Nurseries in School Gardens. Country Life in

America, 1903, No. 6
Tree Planting, Methods of. Agr. Exp. Station, Lincoln,

Nebr., Bulletin No. 56
Trees of Vermont. Agric. Exp. Station, Burlington,

Vt., Bulletin No. 73

(Good for New England and New York)

Weed, CM.: Ten New England Blossoms. Houghton,
Mifflin and Co., Boston, 1909. $1.25
359

among school gardens

4. Books and Bulletins on Animal Life in the
Garden

(a) Birds
Babcock, Charles A.: Bird Day and How to Prepare

for it. Silver, Burdett and Co., New York,

1909. I .50
Badenoch, L. N.: Romance of the Insect World.

The Macmillan Co., New York, 1909. I1.25

(Good for fourth to sixth grade children)

True Tales of Insects. E. P. Dutton. $3.00
Blanchan, Neltje: Bird Neighbors. Orange Judd

Co., New York, 1909. I2.00
BowDiSH, B. S.: Putting up of Bird Houses; How to
make and where to place. Special leaflet,
National Association of Audubon Societies.
New York, 1908
Chapman, Frank M.: North American Birds. Double-
day, Page and Co., New York, 1909. I2.50

(Color key to the birds. Has over 800 illustrations)

DicKERSON, Mary C. : The Frog book, or North Ameri-
can Frogs and Toads. Doubleday, Page and
Co., New York, 1909. I4.00

(Over 400 illustrations)

Moths and butterflies. Ginn and Co., Boston,
1909. I2.50
DuGMORE, Arthur R.: Bird Homes. Doubleday,
Page and Co., New York, 1909. I2.00

Fifty common birds of Vermont. Dept. of Educa-
tion, Circular XVIII, Montpelier, Vt.

(Prepared for teachers and school officers)
360

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Grinnell, Elizabeth and Joseph: Our Feathered
Friends. D. C. Heath and Co., Boston, 1909.
Boards. $ .30
Birds of Song and Story. A. W. Mumford and Co.,
1901. |i.oo
Miller, Olive Thorne: Bird Ways. Houghton,
Mifflin and Co., Boston, 1885. I1.25
First Book of Birds. Houghton, Mifflin and Co.,

Boston, 1899. 1 1. 00
Second Book of Birds. Houghton, Mifflin and Co.,

Boston, 1 90 1. $1.00
Little Brother of the Air. Floughton, Mifflin and

Co., Boston, 1892. 1 1. 25
In Nesting Time. Houghton, Mifflin and Co.,

Boston, 1888. 1 1. 25
Upon the Tree Tops. Houghton, Mifflin and Co.,

Boston, 1897. 1 1. 25
True Bird Stories. Houghton, Mifflin and Co.,
Boston, 1903. 1 1. 00
Nash, C. W. : The Birds of Ontario in relation to Agri-
culture. Dept. of Agric, Toronto
Pearson, T. G.: Stories of Bird Life. Johnson Pub'g.
Co., Richmond, Va., 1901. | .60

(b) Insects

Butterflies and Moths injurious to our Fruit Producing

Plants. Agr. Exp. Station, St. Anthony Park,

Minn. Bulletin 6i
CoMSTocK, Anna B.: How to Keep Bees. Doubleday,

Page and Co., New York, 1905. |i.oo
CoMSTocK, John H. and Anna B.: Manual for the

Study of Insect Life. J. H. Comstock, Ithaca,

N. Y., 1906. I4.00

361

AMONG SCHOOL GARDENS

CoMSTocK, John H.: Insect Life. D. Appleton and
Co., New York, 1905. I1.50

("An introduction to nature study, and a guide for teachers,
students and others interested in outdoor life." Better
than the Manual for the average reader)

Holland, W. J.: The Butterfly Book. Doubleday,
Page and Co., New York, 1898. I3.00

Howard, L. O. : The Insect Book. Doubleday, Page
and Co., New York, 1901. I3.00

Insects Injurious to Shade and Ornamental Plants.
Agr. Exp. Station, New Brunswick, N. J. Bul-
letin No. 181

KiRKLAND, Arthur: Usefulness of the American Toad.
Farmers' Bulletin No. 196

Knobel, E.: Day Butterflies and Duskfliers. Bradlee
Whidden, Boston, 1895. Paper, | .50
The Beetles of New England. Bradlee Whidden,
Boston, 1895. Paper, | .50

(Books easily slipped in the pocket; mostly illustrations, and
convenient for identifying, but not reliable for all names.
Used with Comstock as an authority in names, they are help-
ful)

Morley, Margaret W. : Bee People. A. C. McClurg
and Co. 1899. I1.25
Butterflies and Bees. Ginn and Co., Boston, 1909.

1-75
Insect Folk. Ginn and Co., Boston, 1903. $ .55

Little Wanderers. Ginn and Co., Boston, 1899.

I .30
Peckham, G. W. and E. G. : Wasps, Social and Soli-
tary. Houghton, Mifflin and Co., Boston, 1905.

PiERSON, C. D.: Among Pond People. E. P. Dutton,
New York, 1901. |i.oo
362

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Reed, Chester A.: A Bird Guide. C. K. Reed, Wor-
cester, Mass., 1905. 2 parts, each | .75
Part I. Water, Game and Birds of Prey
Part II. Land Birds east of the Rockies

(The books are in flexible cloth 2^ by 5^ inches and contain
over 200 illustrations in color. A good pocket guide)

Goldfish — Aquaria — Ferneries. Doubleday, Page
and Co., New York, 1909. $ .50
Rogers, Julia E.: Life in an Aquarium. Cornell

Leaflet No. 1 1
Weed, C. M.: Insects and Insecticides. 2d rev. ed.,
Orange Judd Co., New York, 1908
Life Histories of American Insects. The Mac-
milian Co., New York, 1906. | .50

(Delightful stories to tell the children)

Nature Biographies. Doubleday, Page and Co.,
New York, 1901. I1.35

("The lives of some everyday butterflies, moths, grasshoppers
and flies")

Fungi and Fungicides. Orange Judd Co., New
York, 1894. 1 1. 00

Stories of Insect Life: Series i and 2, 20 stories.
Ginn and Co., Boston, 1897. | .50
Wright, Mabel Osgood: Heart of Nature Series.
The Macmillan Co., New York, 1904. $ .50

(Including "Stories of plants and animals;" "Sto-
ries of earth and sky;" "Stories of birds and
beasts")

5. The School Garden in Periodical Literature

The most complete bibliography of the school garden was issued
by Dr. B. M. Davis, now of Miami University, in his "School Gardens
for California Schools, " published by the Chico State Normal School,
Gal., in 1904. Two hundred and fifty scattered articles are there
enumerated. Since then, many others have appeared. The older
list contains numerous pamphlets which are no longer accessible to

363

AMONG SCHOOL GARDENS

the reader. Some are obtainable at libraries where files of Country
Life, Suburban Life, The Garden Magazine, World's Work, the Reports
of the National Educational Association (N.E.A.), copies of the
Nature Study Review, of the Journal of Education, files of reports of
the horticultural societies and similar publications, and, finally, of
the United States Bureau of Education, are kept. From Dr. Davis's
list 1 have selected a few that seemed most likely and best fitted to
repay a search or a trip to a large library. The best method for
obtaining access to the constant outcrop of pamphlets bearing upon
school-gardening is to keep in touch with national and state publica-
tion lists; publications of normal schools and colleges that are already
known for excellent work; and those sent out by such societies as
the American Civic Association.

{a) General references

American Civic Association: Suggestions for Beautify-
ing the Home, Village and Roadway. Outdoor
Art Dep't., Pamphlet No. 5
Window Gardening. By Herbert D. Hemenway.
Dept. Pamphlet No. i. 1905

Babcock, E. B.: Suggestions for Garden Work in Cali-
fornia Schools. University of California, Agri-
cultural Experiment Station. Circular 46.
Berkeley, Cal., 1909

Bowles, J. M.: A Flower Garden for Every Child.
IVorld's Work, May, 1904

Coon, Charles L. (Editor): Geography, Nature Study
and Agriculture in the Elementary Schools.
A Manual for Teachers. Teachers' Bulletin II.
Raleigh, N. C.

Davis, B. M.: What Constitutes Successful Work in
Agriculture in Rural Schools. Report of Nat.
Educ. Association, 1908

DoRNER, Herman B. : Window Gardening in the School
Room. Purdue University, Lafayette, Ind.,
1905

Hemenway, H. D.: Hartford School of Horticulture.
Nature Study Review, January, 1905
364

BIBLIOGRAPHY

School, Rural, Study of Crops in the Fields. U. S.
Dept. of Agriculture Yearbook, 1905

(Including agricultural study as aid to other school work;
laboratory exercises and materials)

Window Gardening. American Civic Association. Out-
door Art Department, Pamphlet No. i.

Stout Manual Training School (Menomonie, Wis.) :
1899. A Handbook for Planning and Planting
the Small Home Grounds

(b) From Bibliography by B. M. Davis

Addis, Wellford: Course in Agriculture in Higher
1889 Elementary Schools in France. U. S. Bureau

of Education. Report of Commissioners for

1 889- 1 890, Vol. 2, pp. 1007-10 1 3
American Park and Outdoor Art Association.* Report
1903 of special school-garden session of the yth annual

meeting, Vol. 7, Part 3, pp. 1-54

(It contains report of standing committee on school grounds,
which states:

"1. That the American Park and Outdoor Art Association
acting through its committees, individual members, and
affiliated organizations, lend its active support and encourage-
ment to the beautification of school grounds and to the es-
tablishment and maintenance of school gardens and play-
grounds for children.

"2. That, in pursuance of this end, the Association co-operate
with city and school officials, local associations, and other
organizations: and

"3. That the Association encourage the establishment and
maintenance of courses of study in normal schools, agricul-

* The American Park and Outdoor Art Association no longer
exists under this title. At St. Louis, Mo., June 10, 1904, the American
Civic Association was formed by the merger of the American
Park and Outdoor Art Association and the American League for
Civic Improvement. All communications should now be addressed
to American Civic Association, Union Trust Bldg., Washington, D. C.

365

AMONG SCHOOL GARDENS

tural colleges, and other like institutions of learning, such
as will prepare teachers for work of this kind.")

(This report of special school garden session also contains
reports on school gardens from twenty different states, and
from Porto Rico and Hawaii)

Bailey, L. H.: Hints on Rural School Grounds. Cor-

i88g nell University. Experiment Station Bulletin
No. 1 60, pp. 271-290

1903 School Gardens. Conniry Life in America, Vol. 3,
pp. 190-192. Doubleday, Page and Co.

1903 The Nature Study Movement. Journal of Pro-
ceedings and Addresses of the N. E. A., 1903,
pp. 1 09- 1 16

Baldv/in, W. a.: Industrial Training in Rural Schools.

1903 Journal of Proceedings and Addresses of the
N. E. A., 1903, pp. 193-198

Bartholomew, A. C. : Gardening; Its Role in Prepara-
1900 tory School Life. London: British Board of
Education, Special Reports, Vol. 6, pp. 321-325
Barton, Nellie: Lessons in Nature Study. Glen-
1902 wood, la. Institute for Feeble-Minded Chil-
dren, pp. 25-29
Beard, Annie E. S.: New Methods in School Gardens.

1904 The IVorld To-day, Vol. 6, No. 5, pp. 675-681
Bessey, C. E. et al.: New Elementary Agriculture.
1904 Lincoln, Neb. The University Pub. Co., 1903,

pp. 10-194

("The school laws of Nebraska require teachers to pass a
satisfactory examination in the elements of agriculture,
including a fair knowledge of the structure and habits of the
common plants, insects, birds, and quadrupeds, for second
grade county certificates and all grades above the second.
This book has been prepared and published in answer to the
direct demand resultant from the law quoted above.")

Blair, J. C. : The Study of Horticulture: A series of
Jgo3 eight articles on various phases of the subject

366

BIBLIOGRAPHY

adapted for use in public schools. School News,
Taylorville, 111., Oct., 1902, to May, 1903. Re-
printed in the form of eight-page leaflets by
publisher of School News, and sold at one cent
each in quantities of ten or more
Brereton, Cloudesley: The Rural School of North-

1902 west France. London: British Board of Educa-
tion, Special Reports, Vol. 7, pp. 9-14, 1-224

Bright, Orville T. : School Gardens, City School-

1903 yards, and the Surroundings of Rural Schools.
Journal of Proceedings and Addresses of the
N. E. A., 1903, pp. 77-85

CoRBETT, L. C. : Plants as a Factor in Home Adorn-
'9°^ ment. U. S. Dept. of Agriculture. Yearbook,

1902, pp. 501-518
Crosby, D. J.: School Gardens. The Outlook, Vol. 71,
'9°2 pp. 852-861

Children's Gardens. Prospectus of the Depart-
i9°4 ment of Children's Gardens of the American

Civic Association, Washington. Department

Leaflet No. i, p. 8

("The department of Children's Gardens is one of the coordinate
departments of the American Civic Association formed at
St. Louis, Mo., June 10, 1904, by the merger of the American
Park and Outdoor Art Association and the American League
for Civic Improvement. The 'Prospectus' includes: Pur-
pose of the Children's-Gardens Department, Educational
Value of School Gardens, Work of the Department, Recent
School Garden Publications.

" Under Work of the Department the plans are set forth as
twofold: (1) to furnish information regarding school gardens,
(2) to conduct an active propaganda for the extension of the
school garden movement.")

CuMMiNGS, Horace: Nature Study Leaflets. Salt

'897 Lake City, Utah: University of Utah, State

Normal School; Monthly leaflets partly devoted

to school gardens, published from 1897- 1902

367

AMONG SCHOOL GARDENS

Davis, J. E.: The Whittier School Garden. The

'"o^ Southern Workman, Vol. 31, pp. 598 603

'9°3 A Successful School Garden. Country Life in

America, Vol. 3, pp. 192-194
Fowler, V/. K., et al.: The Model School, Home and
1Q02 Grounds, etc. Lincoln, Neb. Bulletin of State

Department of Education, School Buildings and

Grounds in Nebraska, pp. 102-134
Gang, E.: School Gardens. U. S. Bureau of Educa-

1899 tion. Report of Commissioner, 1898-99, Vol. i,
pp. 1067 1084

("This is translated from Rein's Pedagogical Encyclopedia.
It is one of the best short accounts, especially from a his-
torical standpoint, published.

Contents: Historical review; Sites and arrangement of
school gardens; Dififerent sections of school gardens; Manage-
ment; Instruction in school gardens; Educational and econo-
mic significance of school gardens.")

Georgens, J. D. : Der Volksschulgarten und das Volks-
1873 schulhaus. Berlin. F. Henschel, 1873, pp, 6-
190

("This was prepared by order of the Royal Land Commission
of Prussia for the Vienna Exposition of 1873. It is of special
interest because of its being one of the earliest books written
on school gardens. Two pamphlets, however, in which
school gardens received considerable attention, were pub-
lished in Sweden previous to this time: Eckstrom, 18(55)56;
Lindgren, 1866")

Georgil, Axel: School Gardens in Sweden. U. S.

1900 Bureau of Education. Report of Commissioner,
1899-1900, Vol. 2, pp. 1447-1/^48

Hatch, L. A.: The School Garden at the Northern
'9°3 Illinois Normal School. School News, Vol. 16,

pp. 466-467
Hays, Willet M.: Rural School Agriculture: Exer-
1902 cises in Agriculture and Housekeeping for

368

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Rural Schools. Originally issued by Univer-
sity of Minnesota, Bulletin No. i. Reprint by
McGill, Warner Co., St. Paul, Minn. [1905?]

(" Exercises in this Bulletin . . . have been prepared for
use of teachers in the rural schools of Minnesota. Recogniz-
ing the unavoidable lack of preparation on the part of the
teachers, each exercise includes the information necessary
to the teacher conducting it. . . The effort is to aid the
teacher to lead the rural school pupils to gather facts, grasp
principles, and receive impressions which will start them to
earnestly study to improve the industries and life of rural
communities.")

HiATT, Edward: School Improvement. Riverside,
i9°2 Cal., Department of Education. Riverside

County, Cal., Leaflet, pp. 1-7
Hooker, Susan H.: The Planting of School Gardens.
1902 Country Life in America, Vol. i, pp. 219-221
Hunt, Thomas: Rural School Agriculture. Columbus,
'9°3 O. University of Ohio, College of Agriculture

and Domestic Science, University Bulletin,

Series 7, No. 22, pp. i-io
Karal, John: School Gardens in Russia. U.S. Bu-
1898 reau of Education. Report of Commissioner,

1897-98, Vol. 2, pp. 1 632- 1 639
Latta, W. C. : An Experimental Farm for Young
1898 People. Lafayette, Ind. Purdue University,

Nature Study Leaflet No. 22, pp. 1-8

1898 Points for Young Farmers' Club. Ibid. No. 23,

pp. 1-8
Le Bert, Richard: School Gardens in Europe. U. S.
1900 Dept. of State. Special Consular Reports, Vol.

20, Part 2, pp. 159-221
Lukens, H. T.: School Gardens in Thuringia. Educa-

1899 iional Review, Vol. 17, pp. 237-241

369

AMONG SCHOOL GARDENS

McKay, A. H.: School Gardens. Halifax, Nova

1900 Scotia: Annual Report of the Public Schools of
Nova Scotia, p. 27

1901 Agriculture, Nature Study, etc. Halifax, Nova

Scotia: Manual of School Law, pp. 66-67, 77"79
'9°2 School Gardens, etc. Halifax, Nova Scotia: An-
nual Report of the Public Schools of Nova
Scotia, pp. 3, 57-60, 73, 98, 105-106, 124,
128
Medd, J. C.: Rural Education in France. London.

1902 British Board of Education, Special Reports,
Vol. 7, pp. 247-310

NiESSEN, Jos.: Der Schulgarten im Dienste der Er-
'896 ziehung u. des Unterrichtes. Dusseldorf: L.
Schwann, 1896, pp. 9-176

("This is one of the latest and best books in German on the
subject of school gardens. There is probably no better
treatment of the subject to be found in any language. All
phases are covered in a definite, practical way by detailed
working plans.")

Parsons, Fannie G. (Mrs. Henry M.): The First Chil-

1903 dren's Farm. The Outlook, Vol. 74, pp. 67-72
Phelps, Charles S.: Agriculture for Teachers in Pub-
'9°3 lie Schools. Journal of Education, Vol. 58,

p. 224
PoE, Clarence H.: Farmer Children need Farmer
1903 Studies. World's Work, Aug., 1903, Vol. 6, pp.

3760-3762
Powell, F. M.: School Gardens. Des Moines, la.
1899 Transactions of Iowa Horticultural Society,

1899, pp. 1 41- 149
1902 School Gardens. Glenwood, la.. Institute for

Feeble-Minded Children. Institute Press, 190^

pp. 1-13

370

BIBLIOGRAPHY

RooPER, T. G.: The School Gardens at the Boscombe

1898 British School. London: British Board of Edu-
cation, Special Reports, Vol. 2, pp. 224-231.
Reprinted by U. S. Bureau of Education. Re-
port of Commissioner, 1897-98, Vol. i, pp. 224-
227

'Q°^ School Gardens in Germany. London: British
Board of Education, Special Reports, Vol. 9,
pp. 357-404

("An account of a few of the best German school gardens")

RuLAND, Karl: School Gardens. (Translated from

1890 Kolnische Zeitung.) U. S. Bureau of Educa-
tion. Report of Commissioner, 1889-90, Vol. i,
pp. 308-311. Article reprinted. Ibid., 1897-
98, Vol. I, pp. 224-227

SiPE, Susan B.: How the Children of the Franklin

'9°4 School in Washington Improved their School
Grounds. Country Life in Aynerica, Vol. 5, p. 416

Skinner, Charles R.: Surroundings of Rural Schools.

1903 Journal of Proceedings and Addresses of the
N. E. A., 1903, pp. 89^6

Smith, C. B.: A German Common School with a Gar-

1899 den. U. S. Dept. of Agriculture, Circular 42,
pp. 1-7

1900 Agricultural Industries in France. U. S. Dept. of

Agriculture, Yearbook, 1900, pp, 1 15-130
Smith, H. W.: School Gardens and Agriculture.
1903 Truro, Nova Scotia: Annual Calendar, Pro-
vincial Normal School, 1903-04, pp. 13-14,
21-22, 33
Southard, Lydia: School Gardens as an Educational
1902 Factor. New England Magazine, Vol. 26, pp.
675-678
27 371

AMONG SCHOOL GARDENS

ToLMAN, W. H.: Landscape Gardening for Factory
1899 Homes. Review of Reviews, Vol. 19, pp. 441-

444

TowNSEND, G. A.: The National Cash Register Boys'

'9°2 Gardens. American Park and Outdoor Art
Association, Vol. 6, Part 3, pp. 27-31

Troop, James: A Children's Vegetable Garden. La-

1898 fayette, Ind. Purdue University, Nature Study
Leaflet, No. 21, pp. 1-8

Van Dorn, Charles: Possibilities of a Country School.

'903 School News, Vol. 16, pp. 396-398

1898 instruction in Agriculture in Rural Schools in
France. U. S. Bureau of Education, Report
of Commissioner, 1897-98, Vol. 2, pp. 161 4-1 621

1898 School Gardens in Europe. U. S. Bureau of Edu-
cation, Report of Commissioner, 1897-98, Vol. i,
pp. 224-230

1902 School Gardens in Rochester, N. Y. Country
Life in America, Vol. i, April, 1902

6. Essays — Stories — Poems Relating to a Garden

The following titles are merely intended to be suggestive to the
teacher by broadening thought that centers in the garden work
and offering frequent opportunities for new stories that shall give
the children glimpses of the garden as a part of life and literature.
The writings of Thoreau, Emerson, John Burroughs, John Muir,
Schuyler Mathews, of Hamilton Gibson and Dr. Henry Van Dyke
and others suggest themselves. Many of the nature study courses
arranged by the educational departments of the different states
give scattered poems such as those of Wordsworth, Shelley, Long-
fellow, Bryant, Whittier, Tennyson, etc. Some compilations have
already been mentioned. 1 he poems of Emily Dickinson and of
Christina Rossetti hold numerous dainty, musical and ennobling
sentiments touching on the garden. The Poetry of Nature, edited
by Dr. Henry Van Dyke, prides itself upon selecting only those
poems which are in all respects true to nature, though seen with the
eye of the poet.

372

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Arnim, M. a. B. von: Elizabeth and her German

Garden. The Macmillan Co., New York, 1900
Deland, Margaret: The Old Garden and Other

Verses. Houghton, Mifflin and Co., Boston, 1889
Earle, Alice Morse: Sundials and Roses of Yester-
day. The Macmillan Co., New York, 1902
Old Time Gardens. The Macmillan Co., New

York, 1 90 1
EwiNG, J. H.: Mary's Meadow, and Letters from a

Little Garden. Little, Brown and Co., Boston,

1900
Flint, M. B.: A Garden of Simples. Charles Scrib-

ner's Sons, New York, 1900
Freeman, M. E. Wilkins: A Gatherer of Simples.

(In A Humble Romance.) Harper and Broth-
ers, New York, 1887
A Lover of Flowers. (In A Humble Romance.)

Harper and Brothers, New York, 1887
Graham, David: The Wind in the Willows. Charles

Scribner's Sons, New York, 1908
KiRKHAM, Stanton Davis: In the Open. Paul Elder

and Co., San Francisco and New York, 1908
Jewett, S. O. : The Country of the Pointed Firs.

Houghton, Mifflin and Co., Boston and New

York, 1897
Maeterlinck, Maurice: Old Fashioned Flowers.

Dodd, Mead and Co., New York, 1905
The Double Garden. Dodd, Mead and Co., New

York, 1905
The Intelligence of the Flowers. Dodd, Mead and

Co., New York, 1907
Life of the Bee. Dodd, Mead and Co., New York,

190 1

373

AMONG SCHOOL GARDENS

Paine, A. B.: A Little Garden Calendar. H. Altemus
Co., Philadelphia, 1905

SiEVEKiNG, Albert Forbes: Gardens Ancient and
Modern. J. M. Dent, London, 1899. "An epi-
tome of the literature of the garden-art"

Thaxter, Celia: My Island Garden. Houghton,
Mifflin and Co., Boston, 1904
Peggy's Garden and What Grew Therein. (In
Stories and Poems for Children.) Houghton,
Mifflin and Co., Boston, 1896

Warner, CD.: My Summer in a Garden. Houghton,
Mifflin and Co., Boston, 1898

Wright, Mabel Osgood: The Garden of a Commuter's
Wife. The Macmillan Co., New York, 1901

Descriptions of Gardens from Famous Books
Addison, Joseph: The Spectator. June 25, 1712, and

Sept. 6, 1712. [137]*
Bacon, Francis: Essays: Of Gardens. [73]
Golds.mith, Oliver: The Citizen of the World. [189]
Hawthorne, Nathaniel: The Old Manse. [267]

House of the Seven Gables.
Homer: The Odyssey. Book VII. [3]
Irving, Washington: The Sketch Book. (Rural life

in England.) [249]
Lamb, Charles: Essays of Elia. [238]
More, Sir Thomas: Utopia. [38]
Paget, Violet (Vernon Lee): Old Italian Gardens.

(In Limbo and Other Essays.) G. Richards,

London, 1897

* Figures in brackets refer to the pages where these references are
quoted in "Gardens Ancient and Modern "(" An Epitome of the
Literature of the Garden Art") by Albert Forbes Sieveking.

374

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Pliny the Younger: Letter to Apollinaris describ-
ing the Tusculan garden. Translated by Wm.
Melmoth. [15]

Thoreau, Henry D.: Walden. [275]

Wharton, Edith: Italian Villas and their Gardens.
The Century Co., New York, 1904

375

INDEX

{Figures in heavy type indicate that an illustration of the subject appears
un that page)

A B C of landscape gardening, 64
Agriculture in the school garden,

257
Air for plants, 94, 95, 96, 106

spaces, 107
Amherst Agricultural College, 22
Aquatic garden, 172
Arbor day hymn, 339
Art and the school garden, 256
Assistants, children as, 45

in school gardens, require-
ments for, 44, 1 24
salaries of, 124
Audubon School, Dubuque, la.,
67

Bacteria, 96, 108

Baldwin, W. A., 241

Baltimore, M d . , Woodbery
School Garden, 210, 211

Beans, 96, 158

Bed marker, 164, 166

Beets, 158, 170, 247

Bellevue Hospital, school garden-
ing at, 62, 63

Bird-houses, 146, 147

Blight, 173

Bloom, increase of, 106

Bone meal, 90, 106

Books, 173, 174, 183

Bordeaux mixture, 173

Bowesville (Canada) school
grounds, 17

Box, first aid to the injured, 142

Boys' Brigade, Toronto, 227

Breeding cage, 199

Broadview gardens, Toronto, 15,
227

Brown, Sir James Crichton, 59

Buckwheat, 96

Bulb planting, 5

Burdock, 217

Butterflies, check-list of thirty-
four, 2Q5

Cabbage, 71, 170, 247

butterfly, 71, 91
Canadian school garden, 1 15

school gardeners, require-
ments for, 281
Capillarity of soil, 98, 99, 169
Capillary water, 91
Carbon, 95, 107
Carbonic acid gas, 95, 107
Carpenter's tools, 142
Carpet weed, 212
Carroll Robbins School Garden,

Trenton, N J., 250
Carrots, 157, 170
Cauliflower, 170

379

INDEX

Chart garden, 65, 171
Chautauqua Assembly, 22
Chemistry in the school garden,

256
Chicago, 111., Francis W. Parker

School Garden, plan, 161
Children as assistants in school

gardens, 45
Children's co-operation, 45
Cincinnati, O., Douglas School

Garden, 235, 236
City school gardens, 46
Clapp, Henry Lincoln, report of,

7
Classification of school gardens,

52
Clay, 85, 87, Q2, 93, 94, 95, 106,

170
Cleveland board of education, 23
Home Gardening Associa-
tion, 23
Ohio, school gardens of, 23,
233, 240
Clover, 96, 106
Coal ashes, 95

Cobbett School, Lynn, Mass., 66
Cold frames, 152, 155
Color intensity, 106

list, 154
Compost heap, 152, 155
Concord Normal School, Athens,

W. Va., 75
Connecticut, school garden, 1 1 5
Continuous bloom, 154
Cooking, 187, 199, 303
Co-operative labor, 6
Corn, 155, 157, 248, 250

contest, Nebraska, 74
contests, 74
Cornell Agricultural College, 23

Cornell Home Nature Study
Course, 23
Rural School Leaflets, 23,
186
Correlation of school garden
work, 24, 37, 38, 248, 249
with agriculture, 257
with art, 256
with chemistry, 256
with domestic science, 256
with history, 257
with industrial training,

257

with language, 256
"with manual training, 257

with mathematics, 256

with nature study, 254

with physics, 256
Correlation chart, 294
Couch grass, 208
Coulter, J. M., J. G., and Patter-
son, A. J., 185
Cover crop, 90, 96
Cow peas, 96

Crichton-Brown, Sir James, 59
Crimson clover, 96
Crippled children, 29, 60, 268
Crops, 145
Cucumbers, 170
Cultivating stick, 99, 107, 135,

.36
Cultivation, 100, 107, 188, 264
Curator of school gardens, 23
Cyanide jar, 192

Decorative effect, 152
Detention schools, gardening at,
61

380

INDEX

DeWitt Clinton Park, N. Y.,
Schoo Farm, 28, 29, 48, 61,
63, 160, 227, 237, 253

Dibble, 137

Disintegration, chemical, 107

Ditch, 95

Dock, broad-leaved, 213, 214
golden, 207
marsh, 207
yellow, 204

Domestic science in the school
garden, 256

Douglas School Garden, Cincin-
nati, O., 235, 236

Drainage, 95

Dry farming, 97, 99

Duncan, Frances, 173

Dust mulch, 99

Earthworms, 97
Egg shell garden, 68, 246
Emerson, Philip, 174
Enthusiasm of the children,

265-270
Equipment, accessory, 130, 134.

'35

fundamental, 130, 131, 132,

134
Exchange garden, 57
Exhibits, 273, 274
Experimental gardens, 69, 70, 71
72, 73, 79, 80
plots in Philadelphia gar-
dens, 293
" Experiments with Plants," 107
Experiments with seeds, 183,

with soils, 98, 99

38,

Fairview Garden School, Yon-

kers, N. Y., 29, 165, 230, 255
Fall ploughing, 89
" Farmers' Club," 128
Farming, dry, 97

intensive, 97
Felmley, David, 76, 77, 246
Fencing, 1 18, 119, 128
Fertility of soil, 85, 87, 89, 96
Fertilizers, 97, 100, 107, 173

artificial, 86, 90, 99, 100,
105, 106

commercial, 86, 90, 100,
105, 106

natural, 106
Field excursion, 228, 265
First aid to the injured, 142
Flower list, 154, 255, 292
Flowers, 171, 238

arrangement of, 272

for high planting, 155

for small garden, 121, 155

love of, 42
Fork, 137

Formal garden, 54, 55
Formalin, 173
Forms of registration, 165
Francis W. Parker School, plan

of garden, 161
Fruit crop, 106

Fundamental type of garden, 51
Fungus, 94

Garden, 100, 145
aquatic, 172
color sketch, 153
diary, 162

eighteen-cent, 1 1 1, 112
estimates, 1 14-1 17, 142

INDEX

Garden estimates, for fifty chil-
dren, 130
expenses of, 113-117
for fifty children, 130, 131,

132
formal, 54, 55
fundamental type of, 51
laying out, 149, 1 53
line, 120, 134, 137, 155,

157, 164, 166
plan, 146, 148, 150, 153,

161, 162, 294
records, 198, 302
rule of, 264
season, 124, 159
size of, 113
tape, 122
Gardener, duties of, 126
Gardening, time required for,

178, 179, 247
Gardens for special purposes,

57
George Putnam School, Roxbury,

Mass., 66
Germination, 160, 170, 183, 184
Goodwin, Rev. Dr. Francis, 26,

27, 224
Government seeds for schools,

32
Graded work, 148
Grade work in the school garden,

243, 246, 250
Grading, 88
Grass, 92
Gravel, 85, 93

Greenhouse, 26, 47, 128, 222, 230
Ground, sour, 94, 95
Ground bone, 105, 106
Ground water, 91, 169
Group garden, 53, 53, 250

Hampton Leaflets, 186
Hampton, Va., Whittier school

garden, 21, 240
Hand plow, 137
Harrowing, 88, 89, 90
Hartford School of Horticulture,

26, 27, 223, 226
Hawaii, 7
Hedge, 1 18

Hemenway, Herbert D., 27, 173
History, and the school garden,

257
of school gardening, 3-38,
279-28 1
Hodge, Dr. C. F., 62, 185

Dr. Richard, 103
Hoe, 120, 121, 132, 134, 135
Hoeing, 138
Holtz, F. L., 185
Home Gardening Association,
Cleveland, O., 23, 58
seeds distributed by, 24, 25
training garden, 24, 223,

224
gardens, 24, 247, 250, 258
Horchem, Benjamin J., 229
Humus, 85, 93, 95, 100, 108, 136
Hyannis, Mass., school gardening

at, 20, 241, 242, 243, 244
Hydrant, 96, 129
Hygroscopic moisture, 91

Illinois, school gardens in, 75
Imbecile children, 59
Individual beds, see Plots.
Industrial training in the school

garden, 257
Insect study, 190, 191,192, 199
Insecticides, 304

38:

INDEX

Intensive farniinj;, 97
Iron, 107
Irrigation, q6
Ivy, poison, 215

Janitor, i 18
Jekyll, Gertrude, 174
"Jimson" weed, 204, 213
Johnson, Vt., normal school, 21

school garden, 173
Jolict, 111., 21

Kearney, Nebr., school garden,

74
Kern, O. J., 75
Killing bottle, 192
Kindergarten work, 152, 251
Knapp, Dr. Seaman A., 74

Land, rental of, 113

Landscape gardening, A. B. C. of,

64
Language in the school garden,

2i;6
Lathing, uses of, 136
Latter, Lucy R., 174
Leafage, 106
Leaves, 95
Leguminosa, q6
Lettuce, 158, 170
Light, 145
Lime, 107

Line and stake, 137
Liquid manure, 105
Literature, school garden, 73
Litmus paper, Q5
Load of earth, shovelfuls in, 53

Loam, 86, 87

Los Angeles, Cal., 21

Louisville, Ky., 21

Macdonald College, 13, 14

Consolidated School and

gardens, 35
fund, 13
Institute, 13, 16
movement, 14
school gardens, 13-20, 85,

"5
Sir William C. 14

Magnesium, 107

Manual training in the school
garden, 257
training, value of, 59

Manure, 86, 89, 90, 95, 99, 103,
104, 170

Market gardeners, 89

Marking board, 152, 164, 166

Massachusetts Horticultural So-
ciety, 7, 26, 273

Mathematics in the school gar-
den, 256

Maturity, early, 106

Measure in planting, 168

Menomonie, Wis., 21

Mental power increased, 85, 177

Mental training by motor ac-
tivity, 8, 13, 59, 85

Milkweed, 21 1

Miller, Miss Louise Klein, curator
of Cleveland school gardens,

23. 58, 173
Model plot, 152

school garden, 47, 48, 150
Moisture, 95, 96, 97, 108

hygroscopic, 91

383

INDEX

Mold, 94, 104
Monarch butterfly, igi
Mullein, 217
Muriate of potash, qo
Muskmelons, 170

Nasturtiums, 171

Nathan, Miss Stella, supervisor

of Philadelphia school gardens,

29
National Cash Register garden,

20, 85, 1 14, 223
Native plants for transplanting,

66, 67, 80
Nature study, 232, 254

in the school garden, 254
material, 134
Nebraska corn contest, 74
New England, school gardens
in, 26
school house, -;■]
New Jersey, school garden, 115
New York City, School Garden

Association of, 239
New York University, 22, 160,

169
Nitrate of soda, 90, 105
Nitrates, 96, 105, 106, 107, 171
Nitrogen, 96, 107, 170
Normal, III., State Normal Uni-
versity, school garden, 244,

245, 246, 247
Novelties, 153

Observation work, 152, 187
Ohio, school garden, 1 16
schools, 76

Ontario Agricultural and Ex-
perimental Union, Schools'
Division, 285

Organic matter, decaying, 95

Osmosis, 92

Osterhout, W. J. V., 107, 185

Oxygen, 106

Paint, 146
Parents' day, 199
Park Life, 226, 227, 228, 229
Parsley worm, 191
Parsons, Henry G., 135, 160, 169.
See Bibliography.
Mrs. Henry, 4, 28, 227
Paths, 95, 136, 146, 149, 180,

181
Peas, 96, 106, 158
Pennsylvania, University of,

school garden, 22
Penny-packet seeds, 112, 137
Pergola, 129

Philadelphia, gardens, experi-
mental plots in, 293
mill girls, 266, 267
school gardens, 233, 239,
240
Phosphate, 105, 106
Phosphoric acid, 170
Physics in the school garden, 256
Pigweed, 212

Pittsburgh, Pa., school gardens,
127,231, 232, 233, 239
Playground Association,
231, 232, 233, 239
Plan of garden, 146, 148, 150,

153, 161, 162, 294
Plantain, 206
Plant elements, 106

384

INDEX

Plant food, gi, 92, 95, 106, 107
Planting, 167

day, preliminaries of, 162,
.63

depth of, 162, 169, 294

first lesson in, 167

measure in, 168

operations, 296

plan, 169, 189, 294

rule for, 1 70

seeds for, 1 62
Plants, for all places, 287-292

for all soils, 287-292

sickly, 106
Plot, model, 152

Plots, size of, 6, 63, 1 14, 115, 116,
117, 120, 131, 139, 146, 147,
225, 252
Plotting the garden, 149
Plowing, 88, 89, 90, 113
Poison ivy, 215
Porosity of soil, 98, 99
Porto Rico, 7
Potash, 105, 106
Potatoes, 173, 286
Potting, 299-301
Pricking out seedlings, 298
Productivity of soils, 86
Providence, R. I., school garden

plan, 79, 294
Pruning, ten principles of, 338
Purposes of school gardens, 222
Purslane, 207

Quicklime, 92

Radish, 158
Ragweed, 209, 21 1

Rain, 108

Rake, 120, 121, 132. 134, 135,

137, 170, 171
Recess period, 179
Records, garden, 198, 302
Registration, forms of, 165
Requirements for Canadian

school gardeners, 281
Robertson, James W., 13
Rock garden, 67
Roller, improvised, 181
Rood, Stanley H., 27
Root cage, 136, 183

crops, 106

fibres, Qi, 92, 96

nodules, 96
Rosedale Garden, Cleveland, O.,

58, 282
Rural school gardens, 46, 63 el
seq.

school house, 78
Russell Sage Foundation, 230
Rye, winter, 90

St. Louis, Mo., 21
Salary, question of, 118
Salt Lake City, Utah, 21
Sand, 85, 87, 92, 93, 94, 95

pea, 96
School farm, first children's, 4
School garden, aims, 222

and boards of education, 34
as a farm, 241
as a social center, 36
assistants in, 44
definitions of, 3
description of, 49-51
economic value of, 9
exhibits, 273, 274

385

INDEX

School garden, farm, 51, 64

fundamental type, 47, 51
instruction, 221, 247
in the school, 233-251
movement, scope of, 33
size of, 3, 63
staff, personnel, 193-198
teaching, Canadian require-
ments for, 18
threefold teaching in, 4
value of, 35, 36, 37
virtues taught by, 4
work, quality of, 275
See also School Gardens.
School Garden Association of

New York, 239
School gardening at Bellevue Hos-
pital, 62, 63
at detention schools, 61
for cripples, 60, 61
for deaf mutes, 61
for defectives, 59
for little children, 243, 246,

251, 252
for tuberculous children,
62, 63
School gardens, and civic im-
provement, 233
classification of, 52
ethical value of, 258
experimental work of, 69,

70,71, 72,73
group work, 250
history of, 6-38
in Austria, 9
in Belgium, 9
in Canada, 13-20
in England, 11,12
in France, 10
in Germany, 9

School gardens in New York
City, 237, 238
in Russia, 10
in Sweden, 9
in Switzerland, 12
in vacation schools, 222,

223
maintenance of, 43
of Philadelphia, 29
of the District of Columbia,

organization of, 43, 46

purposes of, 46

sociological, 222, 230, 23 1

truck gardening in, 222, 223
School ground decoration, 4, 24,
54, 55, 64, 65, 69, 80,
266

native plants for, 66, 67
School yard, clean, 68
Schwab, Erasmus, 174
Season of garden work, 1 24
Seed, competition, 283

measures, 137

testing, 160
Seeds, 187

choice of, 1 56

collection of, 187

cost of, 292

germination of, 160

government, 1 1 1

in flats, 296

list of, 292

penny packet, 112, 137

plump, 106

selection of, 1 59, 160
Sheep manure, 90, 105
Shelter, 1 13, 129
Shovels, 122
Silt, 85, 93

386

INDEX

Silver Lake, N. M., 21
Sipe, Miss Susan B., supervisor
of school gardens, Washington,
D. C, II, 30
Size of garden, 1 1 3

of plots, 63, 114, 115, 116,
117, 120, 131, 13Q, 146,
147, 225, 252
Soil, capillarity of, 98, qq

definition of, 85

depth of, 88, 89

fertility, 85, 87, 89, 96, 171

finely divided, 89, 96, 108

for children's garden, 87,
89

grains, 94

improvement, 106

mellow, 96

particles, 92

poor, 96

porosity of, 98, 99

sour, 95

test of, 91, 146
Soils, according to formation, 86

according to productivity,
86

according to texture, 85

exhausted, 97

heavy, 88

light, 88
Sorrel, 207
South Dakota, school garden,

"5
Spades, 122, 132, 134, 140
Spading, 89, 90, 139, 140, 141

fork, 122
Spreading board for insects, 191
Squashes, 170

Standard vegetables, 271, 272
State agricultural colleges, 22
28

Stockton, Cal., school garden,

"5
Stories of plants, 188
Storrs Agricultural College, 22
Street sweepings, 99, 102, 103
Subsoil, 88
Sulphur, 107
Sunlight, 108, 145
Superphosphate, 90
Supervisor, work of, 123
Supervisors, salaries of, 124
Supply plot, 152
Swiss chard, 156

Tap roots, 96

Teachers of school gardening, re-
quirements for, 83, 84, 85
Teaching of school garden, 4
Technical High School, Cleve-
land, O., 58
Tent, 129
Test of soil, 91

chemical, 91

mechanical or physical
92-94

simple, 91
Texas, school garden, 115
Thaxter, Celia, 173
Tillage, 107, 178, 188
Toledo, O., school garden, 114
Tomatoes, 170
Tomato worm, 191
Toolhouse, 120, 128, 181
Tools, 120, 129, 132, 133, 134,
.38

cost of, 132, 134
Topographical garden, 65
Top-soil, 88, 89

387

INDEX

Toronto, Broadview gardens, 15,

227
Training garden, 148

Cleveland, O., 58
Transplanting, 137, 152, 192,301
Tree, how to plant, 336
Trees, 145
Trenching, 95, 106
Trenton, N. J., Carroll Robbins

School Garden, 250
Trial gardens, 69, 70, 71, 72, 73,

79, 80
Truck farming, 24, 89, 97
Tuberculosis, school gardening

for, 62, 63
Turnips, 170

U. S. Bulletins, 32

Bureau of Plant Industry,

30, 3'' 74
Department of Agriculture,

30. 73
Office of Experiment Sta-
tions, 31

Value of small garden plots, 253
Vegetable soil, definition of, 85
Vegetables, eight quickly matur-
ing, 159, 160
for small garden, 112, 155,

156
list of, 255, 292

Waiting list, 151
Washington, D. C, normal
school, 21, 30

D. C, school gardens, 233,
240
Water, 91, 92, 93, 94, 96, 105,
107

films, 96

quantity of, 168

supply, 169
Watering, 168

can, 122, 132, 134
Watermelons, 171
Watkinson Farm School, 27
Watterson School, Cleveland, O.,

55. 56, 58
Weed, C. M., 174
Weed garden, 152, 171
Weeder, 120, 122, 132, 134, 137
Weeding fork, 122
Weeds, 107, 136, 203

common names of, 216-218
eradication of, 214
food value of, 205
Wheat, 92

Wheelbarrow, 122, 136, 141
White bean, 96

Wild flowers. See Native plants.
Willimantic, Conn., normal

school, 21
Wood ashes, 105

YoNKERS, N. Y., Fairview Gar-
den School, 29, 165, 230, 233,

255

388

VISITING NURSING IN
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"Efficiency and Relief," "The Practice of Charity," etc.

Twenty-five editorials which discuss subjects
of permanent, vital interest to all, have been
chosen for this volume from among the six
score or more written under the heading Social
Forces in The Survey.

The New View

A Christmas Survey

The Right View of the Child

The Abnormality of Vice

Depravity or Maladjustment?

Normal and Ideal

The Social Ideal

Perversion of Institutions

For the 25th Anniversary

A New View of Poverty

The Treatment of Poverty

A Plea for Charity

Income and Relief Measures

The Naive View of Relief

Anomalies in New York

The Pittsburgh Survey

The Bread Line

An Early Social Economist

The Maid of Orleans : A Saint

of the Church
The Russell Sage Foundation
John Stewart Kennedy's Will
The Hudson-Fulton Recessional
The Need for a Religious Awak-
ening
Religion and Progress
What We Believe

His strategy is so far reaching and so ably argued, his
knowledge of the hostile forces so exact, his confidence
so unwavering, that the reader almost hears the vic-
torious shoots of the regiments making the onslaught.
" Poverty can and must be abolished ; " that is the
rallying cry. — "The Independent."

He displays in an admirable degree the spirit which
will unite varied interests in a strong effort against
a common foe. — " The Catholic World."

Man, not wealth, is the slogan of the new social
sciences, and these vigorous editorials are an expres-
sion by Dr. Devine of the social faith that is in him. —
Boston "Evening Transcript."

J2mo, 226 pp. Price, postpaid, $1.25

CHARITIES PUBLICATION COMMITTEE
105 E. 22d St., New York

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